--- title: Some Gamblers Won Millions Betting on a Trump Election Win description: Gamblers who placed bets with UK bookmakers on a Donald Trump victory for the U.S. presidency in 2016 have won millions of dollars on the long shot. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2016-11-09T21:30:32.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T11:59:47.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - 2016 Election - Donald Trump - gambling - pubdesk - trump word_count: 456 canonical: https://money.com/donald-trump-2016-election-win-gambling-bets/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on dice](https://img.money.com/2016/11/161109_em_bettingtrump.jpg?crop=0px%2C164px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85) Carlos Slim, Mexico's richest man and the fifth wealthiest billionaire in the world, lost roughly $5 billion after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Slim didn't bet against Trump—[not officially anyway](http://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/14/donald-trump-to-claim-mexican-billionaire-carlos-slim-behind-nyt-sex-assault-stories-wsj.html)—but was affected because the value of the Mexican peso cratered after the election, resulting in the evaporation of roughly 9% of Slim's fortune. Many other people won or lost money on the election in an instant the more traditional way: gambling. It's illegal to bet on U.S. elections on American turf, but gambling on election outcomes is totally fair game in the U.K. Leading up to November 8, with virtually all [polls predicting a Hillary Clinton victory](https://time.com/4508467/election-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-map/), U.K. bookies were [swamped with bets](https://money.com/election-betting-record-high/). "The U.S. election attracted more bets than any other political gamble ever in the U.K., with what bookies estimate at around £200 million ($247.6 million) worth of wagers," the [*Wall Street Journal*](http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-victory-leads-to-losses-for-british-bookies-1478703088) reported. While 69% of individual election bets placed with the bookmaker William Hill [picked Trump](http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/us-election-odds-latest-hillary-clinton-donald-trump_uk_5820a531e4b020461a1d398a) as the winner, most appear to have been relatively small wagers. Roughly three-quarters of the stake money bet with William Hill was on a Clinton victory. That appeared to be the safe bet, after all: Bookmakers were giving Trump only a 20% chance of winning on Tuesday. But wagers on Trump obviously paid off, and a few very large bets on Trump's election victory paid off handsomely. Perhaps the biggest payout of all came from the bet placed by one real estate magnate on another. The (UK) [*Metro*](http://metro.co.uk/2016/11/09/vincent-tchenguiz-wins-1-2-million-after-betting-on-a-trump-victory-6245269/) reported that the Iranian-British real estate tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz won £1.2 million ($1.5 million) thanks to bets worth £350,000 ($435,000) on Trump. According to the (UK) [*Independent*](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/us-election-2016-donald-trump-president-win-bets-london-gambler-a7404666.html), one unknown gambler won £500,000 ($622,000) on a £200,000 ($249,000) bet on Trump, and several six-figure wagers were placed on one or the other American candidates. Meanwhile, Trump paid off over and over for a British hotel owner named John Mappin, who [won a total of £103,000](https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2147833/paddy-power-stung-for-3-5million-as-trump-shock-victory-leaves-bookies-out-of-pocket/) ($128,000) thanks to a string of 33 bets on Trump's political run. ***Read Next:* What Trump’s Win Means for Your Wallet** Perhaps most interesting of all is the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power's decision to pay off around $1 million worth of bets *before the election even took place*. Convinced that Clinton would win, the bookmaker preemptively paid off wagers on the Democratic candidate with the hopes of avoiding bigger losses later. Obviously, the move didn't pay off for Paddy Power. “We’re in the business of making predictions and decided to put our neck on the line by paying out early on Hillary Clinton, but boy did we get it wrong,” said Paddy Power spokesman Feilim Mac An Iomaire, according to [*Bloomberg News*](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-09/paddy-power-s-1-million-gamble-backfires-as-trump-upsets-odds). “We’ve been well and truly thumped by Trump.” ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-2016-election-win-gambling-bets/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Elections", "item": "https://money.com/elections/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Some Gamblers Won Millions Betting on a Trump Election Win" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-2016-election-win-gambling-bets/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/donald-trump-2016-election-win-gambling-bets/", "name": "Some Gamblers Won Millions Betting on a Trump Election Win", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-11-09T21:30:32.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-2016-election-win-gambling-bets/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-2016-election-win-gambling-bets/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:59:47.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Some Gamblers Won Millions Betting on a Trump Election Win", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/11/161109_em_bettingtrump.jpg?crop=0px%2C164px%2C2100px%2C1181px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "161109_EM_BettingTrump" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-11-09T21:30:32.000Z", "description": "Gamblers who placed bets with UK bookmakers on a Donald Trump victory for the U.S. presidency in 2016 have won millions of dollars on the long shot.", "abstract": "Gamblers who placed bets with UK bookmakers on a Donald Trump victory for the U.S. presidency in 2016 have won millions of dollars on the long shot.", "@id": "https://money.com/donald-trump-2016-election-win-gambling-bets/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T11:59:47.000Z", "wordCount": 456, "keywords": [ "2016 Election", "Donald Trump", "gambling", "pubdesk", "trump" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Election", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election" ] } ] } ] } ```