Christmas Betting On The Roof Of Buckingham Palace

Whether they go Christmas betting at Mr Green Casino, Bet365 or their local high street bookmaker, the British are bonkers about gambling on the weather and yet again this holiday season there’s the usual kerfuffle about the chances of snow in the nation’s capital.

It was 1942 when Irving Berlin wrote “I’m dreaming, of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to know” as the opening lines of what became a classic of the season, and in the context of World War Two it is a slightly melancholy tune about missing home and the traditional images of the holidays, but these days it looks more akin to a work of prognostication aimed at those still unconvinced global warming exists, although I’ve a feeling Irving didn’t write White Christmas betting on climate change.

In the United Kingdom, where the weather changes so frequently it appears to have multiple personality disorder, many celebrate Christmas betting upon the weather itself, and indeed UK gambling laws have long permitted books on whether or not the weather will produce snow in London on the 25th of December, in the past measured by the boffins at the Meteorological office using three square meters of paving on the roof of their London headquarters, but now elsewhere.

The Weather; A British Christmas Betting Bonanza

Such is the popularity of this Christmas betting tradition that these days the measure is taken from the roof of Buckingham Palace, the Queen apparently willing to allow her home to be part of this very British piece of seasonal novelty gambling, and other cities around the country have got in on the act with books being run on snow in some of the other big urban areas, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, etc, and is declared if “just one snowflake” falls within the specific measuring area in those 24 hours.

This year that white Christmas in London is quite unlikely with most bookies like Bet365 offering odds hovering around the 1/7 mark on it not happening with just 10 days to go, although they had the same sort of odds on Britain remaining in the EU just before the Brexit referendum too, and the odds on the city seeing some snow is a scant 9/2 at best. But should you really waste your hard earned cash on novelty Christmas betting on the weather when you could place a bet on sports in the UK?

Sites Like Bet365 Give Low Odds On White Christmas In London

Well much as the Premier League will attract some betting traffic at Bet365 and the like come the 26th in the traditional Boxing Day matches, the weather’s changeability is such a daily challenge in the UK, such an integral part of life’s little struggle, that there is almost cathartic karma about a Christmas betting spree upon it. The last time the snow-supporters won in London was 2010, with the somewhat dubious record snowfall in the UK on Xmas day seen by the town of Kindrogan, Perthshire, at 47cm.

These days anyone in the UK gambling news reports on Christmas day (traditionally viewed accidentally between the Queen’s Christmas Message and The Great Escape or a Morecambe & Wise DVD and the Great Christmas Bake Off, will be of snow in London that day are just not paying attention. Climate change is now impinging upon Christmas betting and the bookies like Bet365 have set their odds accordingly, the question is are they are wrong about this as they were about Brexit?