London Businessman Bets Around $ 1.5 Million on "No" Vote in Scottish Referendum

An anonymous businessman from London, who had bet a record $1,470,240 on a "No" vote in the Scottish independence referendum, received a cheque for $1,786,069.33. He said that his decision was a rational one that was based on the projections of various opinion polls, The Guardian reports.

The vote was won by the "No" campaign by 55 percent to 45 percent.

The trader paid the bet amount in four instalments. He considered the bet as a form of investment, and continued increasing his original stake in the hope that later the odds would improve, but they didn't. He won in the ratio 1:4, i.e. for every $6.53, he got back $8.17. So, he says, his actual earning - out of $1,786,069.33 - is a little less than $326,720.

He further said that the first time he went to the local bookmaker William Hill, he wanted to bet $653,440, TIME reports. However, the bookies were not ready to accept the huge amount saying that they could only process $14702.4 deposits at a time. In that case, he would have had to waste the entire day making separate transactions. When he came up with a better solution the next day, the odds had worsened, BBC reports.

Even though he insisted not to "try this at home", he said that it was not an irresponsible gamble. He confessed that at a point he did fear losing the money, but he knew he wouldn't lose his house.  

Putting years of experience in the Finance field to good use, he said that he knew how to limit risk. According to him, proper research before stepping into something is always better as one is sure of the outcome in that case.  

He added that the decision was made with the consent of his wife, but nobody else knew about it.