A sizable contingent of voters took a gamble on Donald Trump last week, but a relative few lucky individuals made that more literal, and have already won big as a result. One of them is British businessman John Mappin, who saw an opportunity to rake in some cash on a slate of ever-increasing long shots, ultimately taking in about $124,000 in American dollars, according to CNN.
Mappin said he had a gut feeling Trump would be our next president at the moment he announced his candidacy. After that, he says he used a "special data analysis system" that he developed over the course of 20 years to determine that yes, Trump was indeed going to win this election, despite the majority of polling evidence and punditry that said otherwise. So since June of last year, Mappin started placing bets on a variety of Trump outcomes, from Trump securing the Republican nomination to his eventual White House win. All in all, he sank about $6,200 on some 30 bets, and with Trump now the victor, he stands to win big to the tune of that aforementioned $124,000.
Mappin is the owner if the Camelot Castle, a hotel in Cornwall, England, so it's no surprise that he had the capital necessary for such a huge win on an underdog. But he was far from alone in his instincts as various British betting firms reportedly took in about $284 million worth of bets on Trump, and the result that few odds-makers saw coming will end up costing these companies millions of dollars.
Despite his headline-getting bet, Mappin was not the biggest winner on this election in the gambling world. One lucky individual netted a $2.5 million payout against a series of Trump bets, according to popular gambling website Betfair. And it stands to reason that a few especially lucky people also won big on various side-bets, like Trump winning the electoral college while losing the national popular vote, or on which candidate won various individual states. As for John Mappin, hopefully for gamblers (and pollsters) everywhere, he will share his data analysis system with the general public soon.
