As you may be aware, the 2012 Summer Olympics starts next week in London.

Thought I would suggest a sweepstake with one $5 chip as the entry. 2/3 chips to the winner and 1/3 to 2nd place.

The rules :
* Rankings to be based on TOTAL medals (i.e. Gold, Silver and Bronze) awarded for every event in the main summer Olympics.
* This will be a handicap sweepstake, with each country's 2008 medal total becoming their negative starting point (so the USA for example, starts on minus 110 medals).
* I will choose from the country list of the 86 countries that won a medal in 2008.
* If anyone wants a country from the remaining 119 countries that did not win a medal in 2008, they can request that country to be added to the list of names, but I will still select each person's entry from the list of available countries (i.e. 2008 medal winners plus requested countries), so there is no guarantee that that country will be picked out of the hat.
* Entries close at 8pm British Summer Time on Thursday 26th July (that's midday Pacific, 3pm Eastern) and will be selected by a names out of the hat drawing by my daughter.
* Entries are 1 uncirculated/near uncirculated $5 chip of your choice per entry
* You may have multiple entries - there are plenty of countries to go around. If Entries exceed 86, then I will add additional countries that did not win medals in 2008 up to a maximum of 204 entries in total. If we do exceed 204 entries (you never know ) then I may request some multiple entries to be reduced to allow everyone to play.

I think that's it - just reply to this post stating name and how many entries you would like. If you want any additional countries added to the initial pot of names, also put that in the post.

These are the list of countries - first list is those automatically in the pot, and the starting handicap. The second list if the names of countries that did not win medals in 2008 that you can request be added to the pot.

Country Handicap
Afghanistan -1
Algeria -2
Argentina -6
Armenia -6
Australia -46
Austria -3
Azerbaijan -7
Bahamas -2
Belarus -19
Belgium -2
Brazil -15
Bulgaria -5
Cameroon -1
Canada -18
Chile -1
China -100
Chinese Taipei -4
Colombia -2
Croatia -5
Cuba -24
Czech Republic -6
Denmark -7
Dominican Republic -2
Ecuador -1
Egypt -1
Estonia -2
Ethiopia -7
Finland -4
France -41
Georgia -6
Germany -41
Great Britain -47
Greece -4
Hungary -10
Iceland -1
India -3
Indonesia -5
Iran -2
Ireland -3
Israel -1
Italy -27
Jamaica - 11
Japan -25
Kazakhstan -13
Kenya -14
Kyrgyzstan -2
Latvia -3
Lithuania -5
Malaysia -1
Mauritius -1
Mexico -3
Moldova -1
Mongolia -4
Morocco -2
Netherlands -16
New Zealand -9
Nigeria -4
North Korea -6
Norway -9
Panama -1
Poland -10
Portugal -2
Romania -8
Russia -73
Serbia -3
Singapore -1
Slovakia -6
Slovenia -5
South Africa -1
South Korea -31
Spain -18
Sudan -1
Sweden -5
Switzerland -7
Tajikistan -2
Thailand -4
Togo -1
Trinidad and Tobago -2
Tunisia -1
Turkey -8
Ukraine -27
United States -110
Uzbekistan -6
Venezuela -1
Vietnam -1
Zimbabwe -4

Albania
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
British Virgin Islands
Brunei
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Côte d'Ivoire
Cambodia
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Cyprus
Djibouti
Dominica
DR Congo
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Fiji
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Grenada
Guam
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hong Kong
Independent Olympic Athletes
Iraq
Jordan
Kiribati
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Micronesia
Monaco
Montenegro
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Nicaragua
Niger
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Rwanda
São Tomé and Príncipe
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
Somalia
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Swaziland
Syria
Tanzania
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
Uruguay
Vanuatu
Virgin Islands
Yemen
Zambia