Home » OCW News » December 2009 » Big Bets on Snow in London on Christmas Day

Big Bets on Snow in London on Christmas Day

Date published: 3 December 2009

This SlideShowPro photo gallery requires the Flash Player plugin and a web browser with JavaScript enabled.

It's no secret that the United Kingdom is one of the biggest gambling countries in the world, with a long tradition of high street bingo parlors and betting shops. In fact, one of the longest standing bets is whether it will snow in London on Christmas Day, a bet that always attracts betting action.

UK land and online casino bookmakers love the wager because it rarely snows in London on Christmas Day which is why the bet is so attractive for them. Over the years, the bet has become legendary because if even a single snowflake is recorded falling in London on December 25, bookies must pay out.

But this year's unusually cold temperatures in the capital have bookmakers concerned as they may indicate that a white Christmas is on the way. William Hill, for instance, has slashed its odds of a white Christmas in London from 8/1 to 6/1. Each year there are many punters who take the bet for large amounts.

Don't miss...

For example, this year a Derbyshire punter will reportedly collect £14,700 if snowfall is recorded on Christmas Day. And in the past, a bet was placed that would have reportedly paid out a whopping £1 million pounds to the person who placed it if London had been besieged by a picturesque blanket of white.

Said William Hill spokesperson, Rupert Adams, 'Snow in London is now a five figure payout and if the chill continues then we predict that a single Christmas flake of snow falling on Buckingham Palace will cost us hundreds of thousands of pounds.'

But white Christmas betting is not just limited to London. It seems that William Hill now accepts 'white Christmas bets' on all major UK cities so everyone in the UK (above the legal gambling age of course) can get in on the white Christmas betting action:

Aberdeen 3/1
Edinburgh 9/2
Glasgow 9/2
Belfast 5/1
London 6/1
Dublin 6/1
Newcastle 6/1
Manchester 7/1
Cardiff 8/1
Bristol 8/1
Cambridge 8/1
Exeter 8/1
Leeds 8/1
Lincoln 8/1
Liverpool 8/1
Norwich 8/1
Nottingham 8/1
Oxford 8/1
York 8/1

Other William Hill winter wagering specials include betting on the lowest temperatures across the UK. For instance, William Hill is offering 20/1 odds that the lowest recorded temperature in England will be beaten (-26.1C, Jan 10 1982, Shropshire), 20/1 odds that the lowest temperature in Scotland will be beaten (-27.2C, Jan 10th 1982, Aberdeenshire) and 25/1 odds that the lowest recorded temperature in Wales to be beaten (-23.3C, 21st Jan, 1940 Powys).