For those who were unaware, U.S. President Donald Trump was given prime airtime on various networks Tuesday night to address the nation. In fact, it was a point of contention whether these networks should even broadcast the Trump address, but many ultimately did.
Trump is known widely for the amount of falsehoods in his various speeches. In fact, there are even various media outlets that allege that Trump is actually responsible for thousands of lies and falsehoods over a certain period of time.
About The Address
It’s important to note that while some believed that Trump would make some new announcements or even declare a state of emergency regarding immigration – neither of this occurred. Instead, Trump simply reiterated that border security was essential to the overall security of the United States, and that he was unwilling to compromise on the $5.7 billion necessary to build the border wall.
Unlike many of his other speeches and addresses, Trump seemed to attempt to appeal to the American people on an emotional level with regards to immigration. He stated:
How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?” Trump asked during the address. “For those who refuse to compromise in the name of job security, I would ask, imagine if it were your child, your husband or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken. To every member of Congress, pass a bill that ends this crisis.”
Bookmakers Get Involved
There were several gambling websites and bookmakers that decided to get involved in guessing how many times Trump would either lie or offer “falsehoods” in the address. While some websites might have done this more for entertainment value, it should be noted that users could actually bet, and profit, off the amount of falsehoods that Trump stated.
For example, bookmaker.eu will utilize the Washington Post Fact Checker to determine the exact number. Interestingly enough, the Fact Checker estimates that Trump made 15 false statements per day in 2018. The speech was only 8 minutes long, and the odds that users could place bets on was that Trump would either make less than or more than 3.5 falsehoods during the speech. Over $100,000 in bets have been placed.
“Fact-checking the president has become a requisite after any major speech, so we decided why not give our players an opportunity to make some money while doing so,” the Costa Rican online sports betting company stated. The company has been in business for over 30 years.
