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You can now gamble on Trump's every move

UK based gambling company has placed odds on Trump's every move, including when he says 'yuge' and when Melania leaves him
Online gambling sites say people are betting lots of money on what Trump will do next (Reuters)

President Donald Trump’s policies have made a lot of people angry, but they have also made others much wealthier through an unconventional source - online gambling.

When his plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act tanked last week, hundreds of thousands of British pounds were won and lost over the future of US healthcare on betting company websites that have found a golden goose on the 45th president’s controversial politics.

One of the main online gambling companies worldwide, the London-based Paddy Power Betfair, found the perfect niche for a new line of bets during the US presidential campaign when they realised the Republican candidate's potential to galvanise gamblers worldwide.

“We don't just do sporting events, we are very much about politics too, so of course, we opened bets on the US elections,” Lee Price, head of PR at Paddy Power Betfair, said on the phone. “The amount of bets just blew our minds. Trump was our top political bet for 2016, attracting more than double the bets on the EU referendum,” he said.

To really grasp the picture of just how big their new line of bets is, according to Price, former President Barack Obama's gambles equated to only two percent of the volume the company has had on Trump since his inauguration.

The amount of bets just blew our minds, Trump was our top political bet for 2016, attracting more than double the bets on the EU referendum

- Lee Price, Paddy Power Betfair

“And it's not just betting on political affairs, oh no... we have bets on him that range from what he is going to tweet that day, to what shade of tan he will sport on such occasion or which year Melania will divorce him,” Price said.

The workload and the volume of bets are so “yuge” right now that the London-based company recently posted a job offer looking for a “Head of Trump Betting” as part of their new site dedicated exclusively to bets on the tycoon-turned-politician.

As part of the lucky candidate's new tasks, he or she will have to keep up with his news conferences, watch out for “fake news” and manage the new hub related to the president's “general idiocy” (as described in the job offer), which includes the odds Trump will add his face to Mount Rushmore.

“We’re looking for a marriage of more convenience than Donald’s to Melania,” the company posted on LinkedIn. “With more than 100 special bets online, the successful candidate will monitor and manage existing Trump markets while devising new specials to launch. They will also need to build a wall around the hub to ensure foreign bets don’t get in,” the job offer said.

We have bets on him that range from what he is going to tweet that day, to what shade of tan he will sport on such occasion or which year Melania will divorce him

- Lee Price, Paddy Power Betfair

Because reality is sometimes far weirder than fiction, some of the firm's oddest bets now have favourable chances, like Trump having a Russian airport named after him, or being caught with Russian prostitutes at a Moscow Ritz. A Trump sex tape being released, for example, has 14:1 odds. And the FBI concluding that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians has 10:3 odds. To put that in perspective, the Premier League football team Leicester City winning the championship had 5,000:1 odds in 2016.

The most outlandish bets regarding Trump are those related to his alleged Russian ties, and the possibility that he and Putin may be kissing cousins. But the most popular - and most callous - are the ones dealing with Melania, with gamblers betting which year in her husband's presidency she will leave him for another man.

“One of my favourite bets, now closed, was 'will he paint the White House gold?' just before the inauguration,” Price said. “Another one that was very popular had to do with 'hand enlargement surgery,' or 'how many times will he say 'yuge' that day?'”

The largest bet on Trump made so far was winning the election, which amounted to hundreds of thousands of British pounds.

“We lost so much money, more than $4m total in bets because nobody expected Trump to win. But then again, that also made a few people wealthy,” Price said.

Because there are so many “Trumpisms” to go around, other online gambling companies have jumped on the Trump wagon, though none have achieved the level of outlandish betting ideas Paddy Power Betfair has come up with so far.

“We come up with the bets, which will also be one of the duties the future 'Head of Trump Betting' will have to fulfil, to come up with ingenious bet specials,” Price said.

Asked whether or not Trump may know about the online betting rage he stirred, Price replied that he is probably too busy tweeting to mind anything else. Which begs the question: Would Trump be allowed to bet on himself? And what would his odds be?

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