Dead Pool

A dead pool, also known as a death pool, death watch, dead cert or ghoul pool, is a game of prediction which involves guessing when someone will die. Sometimes it is a bet where money is involved. The combination of dead or death, and betting pool, refers to such a gambling arrangement.

An example of the concept is where a list of celebrities is decided upon, and the names are placed into individual sealed envelopes. Each player picks a sealed envelope and writes their name on the outside of it. Each week, each player pays a small amount of money. When one of the celebrities on the list dies, the envelopes are handed out and opened, the player who has the envelope with the name of the dead celebrity wins all of the accumulated cash.