{"id":28738,"date":"2020-11-04T07:54:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T15:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=28738"},"modified":"2020-11-10T09:49:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T17:49:42","slug":"election-special-the-biggest-political-event-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/election-special-the-biggest-political-event-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Special: “The biggest political event ever”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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An anonymous British financier will have to wait another 24 hours to find out if his $5 million bet on Donald Trump<\/strong> comes up a winner. He’ll pocket $15 million from Cura\u00e7ao<\/strong> bookies if it does. The flutter, made after consultation with Trump insiders (who had better crystal balls than Biden ones) is said to be the largest political bet ever made<\/a>. What’s more, there was heavy movement toward Trump (75% of bets at Ladbrokes<\/strong>) in the waning days of the presidential campaign. Paddy Power<\/strong> did even more: 93% pro-Trump bets. Ladbrokes’ Jessica O’Reilly<\/strong> said, prior to the vote, “[Joe<\/strong>] Biden<\/strong> looks home and hosed according to the bookies and pollsters, but even at the eleventh-hour punters are continuing to back Trump at the odds on offer.” Bets on Biden wouldn’t yield much if he won: $1,986,903 on a $1.3 million wager, so the ‘red wave’ makes sense. GVC<\/strong>‘s supremo of political betting, Matthew Shaddick<\/strong> said, “It is twice as big as 2016, easily making it the biggest political event ever.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spoke recently with BetMGM<\/strong> Vice President of Trading Jason Scott<\/strong> and he thinks the U.S. gaming industry is missing out on something huge: “I\u2019d love to see the first [state] to allow betting on elections. The 2016 U.S. presidential election was the largest betting event in the world, ever, and it will get doubled next week by the 2020 election … Those like us that are doing the right thing, betting in a regulated market, in a way we\u2019re disadvantaged, so I\u2019d love to see elections get regulated.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Not every bettor was pro-Trump: “Whilst more money has been bet on Donald Trump, it could be telling that the ten biggest stakes are all on Joe Biden,” said a Betfair<\/strong> spokesman, in what may be an outdated sentiment, while the last-minute surge was no surprise to Betfair’s Paul Krishnamurty<\/strong>, who told Newsweek<\/em> “That’s what we always see at the end of an election where the people get more confident about the market and the big hitters enter.” Even if Trump doesn’t come back\u2014and he’s already grousing about the outcome, as we knew he would\u2014betting houses will probably be paying out hand over fist in an election cycle where almost nothing went according to the script. Sen Ted Cruz<\/strong>‘s feared “blue tsunami” failed to materialize, as candidates like Sara Gideon<\/strong> and Mike Espy<\/strong> did face-plants, perhaps from having believed too much in their own polling data. (However, The Squad crushed it in all reelection bids.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Congressional Gaming Caucus<\/strong> member Rep. Susie Lee<\/strong> (D) is having a near-death experience at the hands of a professional wrestler (it’s still too close to call), while colleagues Reps. Dina Titus<\/strong> (D, pictured<\/em>) and Mark Amodei<\/strong> (R) cruised to reelection. Another Caucus member, Sen. Martha McSally<\/strong> (R) got dunked in Arizona<\/strong>, meaning that Native American gaming interests must hope to have as a sympathetic an ear in Sen.-elect Mark Kelly<\/strong> (D). Polling guru Nate Silver<\/strong> had a dismal night, not least for having given Trump only 1-in-10 odds. Don’t take any betting tips from that guy. Finally, the Culinary Union<\/strong> political machine needs some oil and lube: Nevada<\/strong> is only leaning<\/em> blue and the local didn’t come through for anyone except Titus. Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> can take at least<\/em> one victory lap, having purchased reelection for his favorite senator, Lindsey Graham<\/strong> (R), which means we can look forward to six more years of shrill raillery against Internet gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for gaming itself, Colorado<\/strong>‘s Constitutional Amendment 77, which removes wager limits and would allow for casinos to offer other game types, such as roulette and craps, passed with 59.5% support. In Louisiana<\/strong>, sports betting won “lopsided approval<\/a>,” especially around New Orleans<\/strong> (12 parishes), Baton Rouge<\/strong> and Lafayette<\/strong>. Support was as high as 77%. “Sadly, the Pied Piper orchestrates another alluring melody; for too many,\u00a0the promised enticements result in unfortunate outcomes,” whined Louisiana Family Forum<\/strong> President Gene Mills<\/strong>. The biggest backers of the referendum were, no surprise, DraftKings<\/strong> and FanDuel<\/strong>. The deal’s not entirely done: As many as 10 parishes may hold out and the Lege has to make the solomonic decision of whether to go with mobile wagering (more lucrative) or casino-only, like Mississippi<\/strong>‘s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Sports betting also won in a landslide in Maryland<\/strong>, 66% to 34%. Wagering on sports in Deadwood<\/strong> was also a winner with South Dakota<\/strong> voters, 58.5% saying ‘aye.’ Racino legalization finally broke through in Nebraska<\/strong>, where a trio of initiatives “overwhelmingly<\/a>” passed to legalize and codify casino gambling at horse tracks. Congratulations to Ho-Chunk Inc<\/strong>., which kept its eyes on the prize through several election cycles and now reaps the reward. Finishing out a clean sweep for gaming, Norfolk<\/strong> and Portsmouth<\/strong> in Virginia<\/strong> both approved casinos, averaging two-thirds support. \u201cWe are moved beyond words by the tremendous display of support we\u2019ve received from the Norfolk community,\u201d said Pamunkey Indian Tribe<\/strong> Chief Robert Gray<\/strong>. Terrific. Now let’s hope erecting a $500 million, state-of-the-art casino is the easy part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An anonymous British financier will have to wait another 24 hours to find out if his $5 million bet on Donald Trump comes up a winner. He’ll pocket $15 million from Cura\u00e7ao bookies if it does. The flutter, made after … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[109,27,151,42,277,26,278,22,37,84,245,156,207,33,111,12,130,182,74,20,215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28739,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28738\/revisions\/28739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}