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Want to bet when the first bombs will fall on Baghdad? A handful of websites -- Tradesports.com, Iraq Attack Pool (www.thecarrot.com/iraqattack) -- let gamblers wager on political events, including whether the U.S. will seek a second UN resolution authorizing war and when hostilities will start. Dozens of poli sci professors, meanwhile, are not only placing bets but also endorsing the sites as academic tools. "Betting odds on elections generally prove more accurate than polls," notes Forrest Nelson, a University of Iowa economist and futures exchange pioneer. Erik Gartzke, a Columbia University professor, says such markets are "very good at aggregating information."

Based on futures contract prices at Tradesports.com, at press time there was a 39 percent chance that Saddam will be history by March 31.

And get this: Even the Defense Department is into online betting. Hoping to find out whether markets predict wars better than intelligence analysts, it just gave $1 million to a firm co-founded by John Ledyard, a Caltech economics professor, to establish an online futures market on political events in the Middle East. The market should be operating by fall. Hey, Rummy, care to place a bet?