Bookmakers say the US Presidential Election is all but over after Donald Trump wins crucial states of Florida and Ohio

 

Bookmakers have made Donald Trump the resounding favourite to win the US Presidential Election with key states still to declare their results.

As the evening progressed, the Republican – who had trailed heavily on betting sites as polls opened – was soaring ahead.

In the morning, anyone betting £1 on Trump would have got odds of 9-2, meaning they would have made a £4.50 profit.

But a £1 bet on Hillary Clinton would have netted you a profit of only 40 pence, at her odds of 2-5.

But after surprising pundits to win both Florida and Ohio, Trump is now 1-50, meaning a £1 bet will earn you just two PENCE profit 

Bookmakers in Britain have taken around £150million in bets on the election outcome – making it the biggest political event in gambling history.

Betting on the presidential election has surpassed the £75million wagered on the Brexit referendum.

Last month, bookmaker William Hill revealed a woman had put almost £500,000 on Hillary Clinton to win at odds of 4-11, giving a profit of around £180,000 if the US elects its first female president.

Donald Trump held improbable leads in three crucial 'swing' states on Tuesday night, giving him a chance to tip over a line of dominoes that snakes through the eastern US and ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The balance of political power in the United States teetered on a knife's edge as vote-counters gave the first-time candidate leads over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.

Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton watch and wait at her election night rally in New York on Tuesday

If Trump were to hold on in all three, a race that's widely considered Clinton's to lose could slip out of her grasp.

With 95 per cent of Florida's votes counted, Trump led Clinton by just 134,000 votes out of nearly 9 million. That would be enough to avoid the kind of recount that turned the 2000 presidential contest into a weeks-long soap opera.

In North Carolina, Trump clung to a 3 percentage-point edge with 82 per cent of the precincts reporting.

Ohio looked to be a surprising cakewalk for Trump, who opened up a ten-point lead there with two-thirds of the votes recorded in a state that sided with Barack Obama in both of his elections.

Cries of 'USA! USA!' erupted each time Fox News reported that his Buckeye advantage had grown.

Yet amid the good news, a senior Trump campaign official admitted to CNN as the results poured in: 'It will take a miracle for us to win.'

When the network called the Illinois race in Clinton's favor, the crowd let out loud boos. One woman yelled. 'Lock her up!'

Source: Dailymail.uk