For several days now, many people have been placing bets on who would be elected as the next Pope. Today is the last day to make your bets, which have been coming in non-not stop at gambling houses in Europe since the past two weeks.

At the Paddy Power gambling house in London, bets are raging between $480 to $600 dollars, and are estimated as being one of the highest bets to ever have been made on an event that is not related to any sport.

Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana is in the lead in regards to the person with the most amount of money placed on a bet for, whom for the lucky winner on a bet of $7,594.50 U.S. dollars (5,000 British pounds), he or she will be taking home around $30,378 U.S. dollars home (20,000 Bristish pounds).

In regards to Cardinals from the United States who might have a chance of being chosen, they are Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who is currently an Archbishop in Boston, and Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan of New York.

There are no "favorite candidates" coming out of Latin America, but the Cardinal Odilo Scherer of Brazil and Cardinal Leonardo Sandri of Argentina have been two names that have become popular with the bookies.

The announcement of the new Pope is now only a couple of days away, and the expectations are very high from people who placed their bets and also from those who are just curious to see what will happen.

joy.ruvalcaba@sandiegored.com

omar.martinez@sandiegored.com