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As voters head to the polls, it seems thousands of punters have already headed to the bookies as a huge increase in bets have been placed on the outcome in the past few days.
Ladbrokes revealed it took a record £250,000-worth of bets across the country on Monday, while Paddy Power said it was the largest non-sporting market ever for the company, taking over six figures yesterday.
And if the votes goes the nationalists’ way and Scotland splits from the Union, some bookmakers believe they could be up to £1m out of pocket, depending on how width of the margin.
In Scotland, just 30 per cent of punters are backing the Yes vote, although it is slightly higher than the 28 per cent backing a Yes vote across the entire UK.
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Paddy Power admitted that it expected to pay out over the turnout levels, which it had thought would be around 60 per cent; the latest suggestions are that it could be 82 per cent – the highest election turnout in living memory.
At Ladbrokes, most of the bets in the past few days have been pro-independence money, including a £20,000 bet placed in west London, which led to the odds of a Yes win cut to 11-4 from 3-1.
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