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An effort is currently underway to get recounts in several states that Donald Trump won narrowly over Hillary Clinton in the recent U.S. presidential election.
It's the longest of longshots, of course, but if the results in those states were to be reversed, Clinton would be the Electoral College vote winner instead of Trump and she would become the President.
In the unlikely event that this happens, what would happen to the people who legally wagered on the election with European online sportsbooks?
Would Trump bettors, who've already collected their winnings, have to give them back?
And would Clinton bettors, who ultimately did select the winner, be paid?
Gambling 911 contacted British online bookmaker William Hill (www.williamhill.co.uk), one of the largest legal online sportsbooks in the world, and asked them what their policy would be should the unlikely scenario of the election result being reversed come to pass.
"At the moment, all those who backed Trump and have been paid will certainly not have to refund their winnings," said William Hill's official spokesman, Graham Sharpe. "As for the rest, we'll wait to see what happens."
Not content with that answer, Gambling 911 pressed Sharpe to explain further.
"I'm saying that everyone who backed Trump has been paid and will not have to return their winnings," he said. "If a horse wins a race, customers are paid. Should that horse subsequently be disqualified for some reason, they are not asked to return those winnings.
"At the moment, a Trump win is the only result," Sharpe continued. "Should that change in any way, we'll deal with the situation then. I'm not going to speculate on a whole raft of possibilities."
Despite being asked directly and repeatedly, Sharpe refused to say that Hillary Clinton bettors would ultimately be paid should the election result be reversed.
In fact, though not saying so specifically, he seemed to indicate that Clinton bettors would not be paid, in the unlikely event the election result is reversed, by comparing the situation to a horse race that has a disqualifaction days after the fact.
"If a horse wins a race but the result is changed on the same day, we’d end up paying on both," Sharpe said. "If the result changed weeks later because of doping, etc., then that would make no difference. The result would stand for betting purposes."
A rival European online bookmaker, Paddy Power (www.paddypower.com) of Ireland, considered Clinton such a lock to win the election that it paid off its Clinton bettors days before the election was actually held.
When Trump was declared the winner, Paddy Power paid off its Trump bettors too, and told Clinton bettors who were mistakenly paid early, "Merry Christmas, you can keep it."
So Paddy Power ultimately ended up paying off everyone who wagered on the election.
It looks like William Hill has learned a lesson from that and will do everything it can to avoid making the same mistake.
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Staff Writer
