Odds are better than ever President Trump won’t survive four years in office, British bookmakers said Wednesday amid heightened calls for impeachment.
Online gamblers are increasingly wagering against the future of the president’s Oval Office tenure in the wake of recent potentially term-ending news reports this week, according to the administrators of several betting websites abroad.
“Overnight we’ve seen more than [$6,000] bet on Trump to leave before the end of his first term, and we expect to see a lot more bet today, with his odds now shortening from evens into 5/6,” Katie Baylis, a spokeswoman for London-based betting exchange Betfair, said Wednesday, indicating a 55 percent likelihood Mr. Trump leaves office before his stint is slated to end in early 2021, MarketWatch reported.
Gamblers had wagered an additional $16,000 against Mr. Trump by Wednesday evening, U.K. time, she told Marketwatch.
Competing websites, meanwhile, reported experiencing a similar flurry of Trump-connected activity as well this week in the wake of recent news reports triggering calls for impeachment.
PredictIt, a New Zealand-based betting website, placed Mr. Trump’s odds of impeachment Tuesday evening at 30 percent, while Ireland’s Paddy Power on Wednesday began offering 2/1 odds, or a 33 percent chance, to gamblers betting on the president’s removal.
“Impeachment has been a hugely popular topic ever since Election Day — when it was 16/1, immediately after news of Trump’s victory emerged. By the time of his inauguration, the price was at 10/1,” Paddy Power spokesperson Lee Price told Marketwatch.
“We’ve been betting on impeachment for all recent U.S. presidents but, even at the height of the Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton was only ever 6/1 [14 percent] to be impeached,” Mr. Price added.
Calls for Mr. Trump’s removal have erupted within Washington following his abrupt firing last week of former FBI Director James Comey amid the latter’s role overseeing a federal probe concerning the Trump team and its purported ties to Russia.
A news report on Monday this week suggested Mr. Trump subsequently leaked classified intelligence to Russian ambassadors, while a Tuesday report indicated the president personally asked Mr. Comey in February to halt a federal investigation surrounding Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former national security advisor, concerning his own connections to Russia.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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