Bookies Pay Out on Obama Victory

Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, has announced that it will not wait for the results on Election Day and will pay out over a million euros’ worth of bets on Obama to become the next president.

Paddy Power occasionally makes early payouts when the betting public is significantly behind a bet. In this case, the smart and wishful money has been flooding to Obama. The early payout gives Paddy Power a nice bit of publicity and encourages winning betters to gamble back their winnings on the upcoming weekend of soccer matches. Having benefited from one of these early payouts before, I have to admit I didn’t even last till the weekend and was betting on the live simulcast greyhound racing action from Romford, but I digress.

The market hasn’t completely shut down on McCain’s chances, but it’s starting to resemble the Icelandic Stock Exchange. Intrade is trading McCain at 13.1 percent, while Fivethirtyeight.com has McCain’s chances at 4.9 percent. To put that in perspective, McCain’s chances are somewhere between the Orioles winning the World Series next year and the Ravens fielding an offensive juggernaut.

The presidential race may be over for all you action junkies, but there’s no reason to despair. How about all those House and Senate races still up for grabs? Anyone want odds on that second Mississippi Senate seat?

The views expressed in this blog do not represent the views or opinions of Generations United.