Melania Leaving Donald? Irish Bookmaker Taking Bets That She Will In Light Of Body Double Controversy
Is Melania Trump leaving Donald? An Irish bookmaker has increased the chances of that happening by a whopping 25 percent in light of recent conspiracy theories that the first lady is sending a body double to stand in for her, Yahoo News is reporting.
Irish betting website Paddy Power had been taking bets at 16-1 that Melania and Donald would call it quits. Now, he’s dropped those odds to 12-1. That’s a 25 percent decrease. And in the world of betting and gambling, where fractions of a percentage point make the difference between profit and bankruptcy, that’s huge.
So what made the difference? The rumors that popped up last week that a body double stood in for the first lady at a recent appearance.
As Newsweek reported at the time, conspiracy theorists jumped on a video that appeared of Trump and a woman who ostensibly looked somewhat like Melania, but that (they believe) wasn’t her. As the president was discussing Puerto Rico, “Melania,” whose height, hair, nose, and sunglasses, says the conspiracy, seemed a little off, stood beside him.
Trump himself didn’t help matters, by making an awkward joke: “My wife, Melania, who happens to be right here.”
“We’ve done a great job in Puerto Rico,” President Trump says of hurricane relief efforts https://t.co/76jXCrGqVV
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 13, 2017
Not for nothing, Snopes later debunked the conspiracy theory, pointing out that the person who got the theory rolling on social media was simply looking at a blurry video.
Nevertheless, if you believe the theory that Melania is sending out a body double in her stead, then you can believe, by extension, that she doesn’t want to be around the president. Continuing to slide down this slippery slope, you can arrive at the conclusion that the two are headed for divorce.
A false conspiracy about Melania Trump using a body double has gone viral https://t.co/FDywZaFIQX pic.twitter.com/eHGWf3GQ05
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) October 18, 2017
At least, if you’re an Irish bettor and you place bets at Paddy Power.
Paddy Power, like several similar websites based in the United Kingdom and Ireland, takes bets not only on the outcome of sporting events, but on a wide variety of political, social, and other issues as well. And while the idea may seem weird to Americans, who can only gamble on sporting events, lotteries, and casino games, English and Irish bettors love placing bets on whether or not Trump will be impeached before the end of his first term (currently 5:4 in favor), the sex of the next royal baby (10:11 in favor of a girl), or whether or not alien life will be proven to exist by the end of 2017 (3:1 in favor).
[Featured Image by Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Images]
