UnNews:Bookie Gored by bad bet
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| Bookie Gored by bad bet | 
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7 July 2007
DUBLIN, Ireland (Reuters)
An Irish bookmaker who offered 14-to-1 odds that Al Gore would be the next high-profile American to be arrested paid out on Friday after police detained the former vice president's son and twenty-three other assorted family members, all named Al.
Having not specified which Al bettors could back, Paddy Power said some of the 50 or so people who placed money on the "rank outsider" being arrested had been quick to claim their winnings.
"We got a good stoning thanks to the vice president's son and a motley crew of other family members" the bookie said in a statement.
The "bizarre coincidence" would cost him more than $13,600,000. "It's a bit queer," he said "but most of the winning bets were place by the Clintons or people related to them."
Al Gore III, 24, was stopped for speeding on Wednesday and arrested for drug possession after a sheriff's deputy smelled marijuana and searched his Airbus A380 carrying various family members to a commemorative reunion in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The vehicle was travelling on the I95 highway at speeds exceeding the statutory speed limit of 55 mph (approximately 600 km/h), leaving a trail of vandalised washrooms, graffiti, and unpaid roadside diner checks.
Paddy Power, which is well known in Ireland for drunk and disorderly conduct, wacky publicity stunts and for offering bizarre and sometimes controversial bets, offered odds on July 3 that had made Paris Hilton the 2-to-1 favorite to be arrested on unspecified charges, later amended to self-promotion and hypocrisy.
He had ranked President Clinton and Bill Gates among the outsiders for being arrested for child molestation on odds of 33-to-1 and 1-to-50 respectively. As to the odds on Gates, Paddy Power said "It was a done deal."