C'mon people, who the hell would believe a bookie would pay of on a bet before the event happens?
Even the old Ronald Reagan adage would not apply here. This was "trust, but verify". I would not give much for this statement and indeed how can one verify it? I did look up the general London bookies odds.
15/8 Mitt Romney. 2/5 Barack Obama.
Roughly speaking just under double one's stake if Mitt wins and a bit more than half one's stake if Barack wins. These seem like sensible odds. Not like some of the silly publicized bets on the impossible, which the bookies could hardly pay anyway.
Always get a laugh out of the great steeple chase classic in shabby post war England. It was the Grand National. The Communist newspaper (banned briefly in WW2) went the party line and tipped "Russian Hero". Absolutely ridiculous of course- what do they know?
Russian Hero won at 66-1.
A bit of topic, but surely all of us need a good laugh!.
I would never have made a bookie by profession!