Who really won the U.S. election? Gamblers!
The presidential election this year has been one of the most popular events in the history of the gambling industry. Bets have been flying in support of both candidates as their odds of winning have shifted with every new event on the horizon. This has only added to the excitement, which was finalized by an outcome only some of the most fortunate gamblers saw coming.
Fortune magazine has cited that SportsBooks had placed Donald Trumps victory at 25 to 1 odds in August of 2015. That means that anyone who bet on Trump over a year ago is now sitting on a huge heap of cash. Very few ever thought that he would ever take the election after announcing that he would be running, but he continued to surprise everyone with every step towards the White House.
It didn’t work out so well for everyone though. The majority decided they would play the safe road and bet on Clinton, as betting on Trump was just too risky especially with the polls continually showing that Hillary was going to take the election. If you look at the numbers Clinton was by far the safer option and the more strategically sound choice to choose. She even had the president going around endorsing her. Many were predicting that she would go down as the first female president of the United States.
It wasn’t just high rollers and betting fans that were placing wagers on the line, there were celebrities and public figures that were making their certainty well known. One of the staff members on the Howard Stern Show made an announcement that if Hillary did not win the election by a large number that he would go on to shave his head. Some celebrities, such as Amy Schumer, went as far as saying they would even leave the country if Hillary Clinton did not win the election – most of those people have taken back their word now and never had any real intention to do so.
A large bet was put down by Paul Krishnamurty, who is considered to be an avid professional gambler and is the writer behind the blog named “The Political Gambler”. He had put down $15,000 on Hillary Clinton, a bet that was likely based off of poll numbers and the avid amount of vocal support that was going Hillary Clinton’s way. You would think that people may have learned from the shocking Brexit result before being overly confident in a specific outcome just because it looks promising.
There were some high rollers that walked away big from this election. One Iranian real estate owner managed to rake in $1.9 million from the Donald Trump victory. Another gambler, who bet anonymously, is pretty pleased about winning $778,000.
With Donald Trump becoming the president-elect of the United States and being sworn into office in the first few days of 2017, we are facing an outcome most polls and operators never expected which has created one of the most unexpected payout outcomes of the century. He won by a large margin making it highly unlikely that there will be any shift in this result.
