Will Scotland Vote For Their Freedom On September 18th?

The vexed question of Scottish Independence comes to a head this Autumn in a straight up and down referendum, but who’ll win?

Scots Independence Vote On 18th September

• Odds of 8/1 for YES
• Odds of 9/2 for NO
• Gambling laws in the UK allow political betting

With less than a month to go until the September 18th referendum on Scottish Independence the political battle of wills and won’ts is reaching a crescendo with both the Yes and No votes looking to turn their poll support into votes at the ballot box. The first minister and Scottish Independence Party leader Alex Salmond has set out his stall but it still looks like only 38% of the 4.1 Scots electorate is willing to buy what he’s selling, with a clear 51% happy to remain attached to those down south.

The disastrous televised debate twixt Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling, MP for Edinburgh South West and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, saw the SNP man fall down on several key areas of contention, most notably being unable to say categorically what currency the newly independent Scotland would be using, given Westminster has already made it clear they can’t keep using the pound should they decide to leave the union.

Scots To Vote On Independence

Perhaps this is why internet betting in the UK on sites like Bet365 have been offering odds of just 8/1 on Scotland voting to go and a healthy 9/2 on the Scots voting to stay, and also why Mr. Salmond has begun to appeal less to the head (perhaps having already lost that battle) and more to the heart. Emotive response eliciting electoral materials and carefully staged nationalistic photo opportunities have become ever more of a prominent feature to the independence campaign in the last few days and that trend looks set to continue.

However it won’t be big gambling news if the Scots decide to stay, the romantic notion of an Independent Scotland on which Mr. Salmond is playing all too unfortunately stymied by the practical realities of the realpolitik nature upon which the world, and particularly Europe, works these days. Perhaps that’s why a wealthy gambler has already placed what is rumored to be the largest political bet ever made wagering 600,000 GBP on a “No” vote this September.