Online betting site Intrade folds it cards and shuts down

All bets are off over at Intrade, the once-popular online futures trading website that allowed users to bet on the outcomes of real world events. Intrade suddenly and shockingly shut down operations on Sunday-with no advance notice, a vague message about the abrupt demise, and some strong indications that a serious scandal might be brewing within the "financial irregularities" of the company's bookkeeping.

Corruption and shady accounting at a gambling operation? Golly, what are the odds of that?

Gamblers and online futures traders alike were surprised to find that Intrade is halting all bets and shutting down, according to a message posted on the Intrade site yesterday. It will be a concern to these gamblers and online futures traders that their accounts have all been frozen until the company concludes an internal investigation into what they are ominously calling "circumstances" recently discovered in the company's accounting.

"With sincere regret we must inform you that due to circumstances recently discovered we must immediately cease trading activity on www.intrade.com," the company said on its web site. "During the upcoming weeks, we will investigate these circumstances further and determine the necessary course of action."

Intrade says, "These circumstances require immediate further investigation, and may include financial irregularities." The site insists that in accordance with Irish law (Intrade is based in Dublin), they must immediately cease operations, refund all open bets and take no more transactions.

It had been kind of a ghost town on Intrade in recent months anyway. A popular place to bet on things like the location of the next hurricane or the identity of the next pope, Intrade was shut off to US customers last November. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused the site of making false financial statements and violating US laws regarding options trading.

Once US customers were cut off from Intrade, the site's business plummeted. According to the Financial Times, Intrade had 112,000 active users at its peak membership. As of two weeks ago, it had just 509 active users-498 of whom were guest users.

The drop in business may be the least of Intrade's worries. Auditors are leaning on the site because of apparently shady transactions in the company's bookkeeping. Auditors have found "insufficient documentation" of pay-outs to the company's deceased director John Delaney, who died in 2011 while attempting to climb Mount Everest-before the discovery of unaccounted large sums appearing in his bank account.

Even if the shady financial transactions can all be pinned on a deceased former executive, it's a good bet that Intrade won't be taking any more wagers in the near future.