Considering what they are named after, no surprise that calcutta rules and traditions are pretty wild and all over the place. Calcuttas are legal in Louisiana but I expect that to become an issue soon. Almost a quarter million dollars in a calcutta pool and the casinos strangle any other form of gambling. The pool calcuttas are getting too well known.
Current laws allow for calcuttas with very specific rules. The main one is no skimming the calcutta pool for any reason. Not to pay the auctioneer, not to donate to poor orphans with cancer, no reason! 100% payout to the bidders. I know this has been violated, but such violations are illegal in Louisiana. After that, calcutta rules are all over the place.
Generally, if there is no bid on a player he has to buy himself for minimum bid whatever it may be.
Also, call it tradition, a buyer usually tips the player 10-15% jelly. Something to consider when a player or his combine already can expect 10% to 15% free, do they really want to pay thousands for 50%? In a current or just past calcutta, half would have ran $15,000 to $20,000 for the top three. Compare that to a thousand or two entry, I think just a thousand, and $20,000 added money I believe. The pot is $42,000 I believe, the calcutta about $230,000! That imbalance isn't going to last long in my opinion!
If I am a typical top sixteen player that may cash in the calcutta or will be an outside possibility to win, I am not buying half for thousands, the money isn't right for me. If I do cash and don't get a nice jelly the winning bidder would be well advised to never buy me in a calcutta again.
The problem is that the huge calcuttas are bringing in outside gamblers, not just pool players. These guys are putting up huge money at good odds. The top three players sold for $100,000 total in round numbers. $40,000, $30,000 and $30,000. Not exact numbers but close enough. The guys betting this kind of money are gambling on sports and other things too. His calcutta winnings if he hits big may not take him into the black on all his bets.
Before giving out any jelly the person that paid out $40,000 in the blind only got 1:1 on his money. He probably bought a few cheap outliers to cash too so he may be out fifty grand to gross eighty thousand! Gonna toss the player $12,000 to keep him honest? Probably, but now if the blind wins the buyer has spent forty to sixty thousand dollars to win ten to twenty thousand dollars.
If the blind doesn't win which is common, he will probably cash in the calcutta so the forty thousand isn't dead loss but the buyer is probably still in the red. The next two buyers that paid thirty thousand each for players that are in about the same position to win are probably better off at the end of the year. Wonder what happens if one buyer or group takes the entire top of the calcutta? Kinda like boxing horses at the track. You won't win much but your odds of losing it all are slim.
Calcuttas were designed to allow modest betting in small groups I believe. Thirty or forty thousand dollar bids are going to bring in unwanted attention especially with them being posted on the internet. Loose lips sink ships, and are gonna kill calcuttas in Louisiana I believe. The casinos are too greedy to let this kind of money be bet elsewhere. Horse racing only exists because the casinos have been forced to subsidize racing.
This turned into a long ramble but might be interesting to those curious about calcuttas. They are bringing in outsiders and rapidly spiraling out of control. The calcutta five times the purse?Knocking on the door of a quarter million? Trouble on the horizon!
I see the calcutta numbers have been updated, rock'n'roll!
Hu