While toymaking is still the elves’ major job, it doesn’t take up the entire year. Also, there are some elves that just aren’t mechanically inclined and thus are poor toymakers. So for these reasons, the elves decided to open The North Star Palace – the first casino at the Pole. With more and more tourists interested in visiting, in part as a result of my reporting, the elves wanted to take advantage of this opportunity.

Being first allowed them to take some chances, which they did. First they decided to make the currency of The North Pole Palace Bitcoin and to limit the size of the bets. Then for some reason, they determined that their roulette wheels would have red and green numbers with zeros being white.

Another unusual innovation was their version of sports betting. The elves are setting odds and taking bets on the winners of the Reindeer Games. Rudolph is currently 3 to 1 to win the Night Flight (don’t count on Donner.) Even though folks would love to bet on Cupid; Dasher is the overwhelming favorite in the speed events.

Some of the best future bets are on Santa for his upcoming Big Night trip. Some of the more popular bets are: How many cookies he will eat by night end; How much more he will weigh when he returns (the over/under is 15 lbs.); and the one I like most – How many times he will get stuck in chimneys. My bitcoin is on 6.

The poker room is also very popular, especially when the sled dogs come into town. Can you picture what that looks like? Father Time came in to play craps and he did okay. He did draw attention when on every roll of the dice he would shout “Come on’7′, Baby needs new shoes!”

Santa has even visited a few times (just to check it out, of course) and he gravitated to Blackjack. While he says he prefers other card games like Crazy Eights, he has spent most of his time – with limited success – trying to get to ’21’. He says he is smart enough to bet with his head and not over it. Besides, even though he is “The Big Man” – NO CREDIT.

While the success of the casino keeps growing, with the fast day approaching, The North Star Palace will take a back seat until the New Year. That’s a SAFE BET!

written by – Dan Sivco