Bookies Open Betting on Pope's Successor
28 Feb 2005
UNITED KINGDOM – As reported by the Agence France-Presse: "As Pope John Paul II recovers in a Rome hospital from surgery to alleviate severe breathing problems, Irish bookmakers Paddy Power have begun taking bets on the identity of his successor.
"The company has made 70-year-old Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, the Archbishop of Milan, its firm favourite as next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
"Tettamanzi, at 5-2, is ahead of 74-year-old Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, 3-1, and 68-year-old Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino of Cuba, 11-2…"