Thousands of B.C. residents will have a few extra bucks in their pockets this weekend as the B.C. Lottery Corporation started paying out more than $1 million in winnings to those who backed Joe Biden to win the U.S. presidential election.
While President Donald Trump has yet to concede, there’s little doubt now about who won, with electoral votes from Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania added to Biden’s total. On Friday, most U.S. media had the count at 306 electoral votes for Biden and 232 for Trump.
That appears to have triggered the payouts on PlayNow.com, the Lottery Corporation’s online lottery and gaming website.
“After careful monitoring of this unprecedented U.S. Election, PlayNow.com began settling some 2020 U.S. election bets today,” said corporation spokesman Matt Lee on Friday. “We took the time necessary to make the decision, factoring in post-election developments, including Joe Biden and the Democratic Party’s projected win in Pennsylvania.”
PlayNow.com had advised gamblers it anticipated having to hold bets for some time until the election was settled, due to the lengthy ballot-counting process.
Some of the gamblers who put their money on Biden to win were getting anxious about the site not paying up a week after election night, especially after world leaders started to congratulate Biden this week.
“My frustration is that our own [federal] government has acknowledged Biden as the next president and already phoned to congratulate. The fact that this is a government betting site [suggests] a bit of hypocrisy,” said Mike Mason, who bet $2,000 on a Biden win, which netted him $3,100.
Mason said some European betting sites had paid off those who bet on Biden days earlier.
A number of other bettors mentioned that fact in social media posts directed at the Lottery Corporation, as they demanded their money.
In response, the Lottery Corporation tweeted that it intended to “wait until all ballots are counted before we settle bets.” That left some bettors worried they might have to wait until Biden’s inauguration in January to see their winnings.
Lee said winnings for successful bets on Biden total about $1.1 million.
There were 23,000 bets totalling $5.6 million wagered on the 2020 U.S. election, with approximately $1.4 million placed on Joe Biden and $3.6 million placed on Donald Trump.
According to the Lottery Corp., more B.C. bettors put money on Trump, though it’s not clear if that’s because they hoped he would win or they preferred the odds.
On the eve of the election, the odds on Trump, expressed as a decimal, were about 2.35, meaning a $100 bet on him would net someone $235 if he won.
Biden was the clear favourite, as his odds narrowed to 1.58 to win on election eve. A $100 bet for Biden at those odds would net a bettor $158.
Other bets were made on the winning party, the popular vote, Democrats or Republicans to win control of the House, Senate and White House, and parties or candidates to win specific states.
The volume of wagering makes this election by far the single most popular betting event in the history of the website, which was the first in Canada to offer novelty betting on U.S. elections in 2014.
Lee said both the 2020 and 2016 U.S. elections garnered more betting action than any Stanley Cup Final, Super Bowl or NBA Final event that’s been featured on PlayNow.com.
The 2016 U.S. election, now the second-largest single-betting event on the site, drew in 7,200 bets totalling more than $737,000.
There are still bets to be settled in this election.
Lee said while bets on Biden and the Democrats winning have been settled, the corporation has left bets open on Trump and the Republicans until after Jan. 6, when the House and Senate convene to count electoral votes and officially announce the next president. Those bets could settle earlier than Jan. 6, if Trump concedes before then.
Lee said any settled bets and payouts, including those on Biden and the Democrats, will stand regardless.
PlayNow.com has become a more popular spot for gamblers during the pandemic, as casinos have been forced to temporarily shut their doors.
A surge in online traffic has triggered an investment in the website with enhanced casino games, sports betting, more features and things like lottery subscriptions to save people from having to go out to buy tickets.
Revenue from PlayNow.com increased 19.5 per cent over the course of the 2019-20 fiscal year to $179 million and is projected to increase another 11 per cent this current year.
aduffy@timescolonist.com
