Posted on 11/03/2004 10:22:20 AM PST by holymoly
British punters who backed US presidential candidate John Kerry heavily in a rush of bets are anxiously awaiting the election result.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds were placed on Kerry to defeat Republican President George Bush as exit polls predicted victory for the Democrat.
Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush said bookmakers were taking regular £10,000 bets on victory for the challenger.
On Tuesday afternoon at 5pm Bush was still favourite to win at 8/11 with John Kerry at even money.
But the late betting patterns led to odds on Kerry being slashed to 1/3 and Bush pushed out to 9/4.
Mr Lush said it was the first time Kerry had been favourite at any point and could be the biggest gamble ever seen for an election.
Ladbrokes only stopped taking bets after US television network NBC called the swing state of Florida for Bush this morning.
This result was followed by growing indications that the President would be named the eventual winner.
It is believed around £8 million was staked in Britain on the US election, with the biggest early bets backing the Republicans.
In June one punter staked 100,000 Canadian dollars - around £44,000 - with Ladbrokes on a win for President Bush.
Sod off, wankers.
Ha! Hit 'em where it hurts!
There are going to be a LOT of questions from these folks about those bogus polls. Losing one's cool is one thing, but losing money is quite another.
There may not be many handguns in England, but I understand that it's still unwise not to pay your professional gambling debts there in a timely fashion.
Speaking of which, I once had a friend, now dead, whose son unfortunateloy contracted a heroin habit while in college. He ran up a very large bill, was unable to pay, but his mother paid it after someone called her up and said he would break both of her son's legs if she didn't.
I expect these kerry backers will pay, one way or another. Tough luck.
Typically they just want their money and will calm down if you’re paying toward it at 10%/week juice.
The problem starts when you can’t or won’t pay. It’s not the end of the world if one person doesn’t pay, but it puts them in a bind if anyone else finds out about it. They’re sort of stuck and have to do something or they’ll be thought of as suckers.
It’s not uncommon for them to take someone that’s into them for a few thousand (and has been trying to pay it down) and tell him they’ll call it even if he’ll take care of the guy that owes them a grand and refuses to pay.
Also, keep in mind that there have been plenty of books over the years that get too heavy one way or the other and find themselves in the position where they can’t pay everyone off either.
Plenty of them have been beaten, killed, or just disappeared entirely too. Sort-of works both ways…
Sounds like the bookies are doing well!
Words of advice come to mind, Bet with your brain not with your heart!
Ooops..there goes the money to get their teeth fixed...
Problem with liberals is they bet with their heart, which they sold to the devil a long time ago because of their lack of brains.
Translation: Loosers!
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