William Hill pays out on Lockerbie bomber bet

The well known bookmaker and online gambling operator William Hill has had to pay out on a bet made on the Lockerbie bomber. Former newspaper editor Kelvin MacKenzie made a bet at William Hil that the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi would still be living one year after being released from prison.

MacKenzie made his bet on Megrahi still being alive after the Scottish Cabinet for Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill allowed his release on compassionate grounds. MacKenzie has now been sent a cheque for £500 nine days earlier than William Hill were due to pay out on the bet.

When William Hill were asked if they were worried that Megrahi could die before the year is out spokesman Graham Sharpe said, “We very much doubt that is going to happen.”

Last week in his weekly column in ‘The Sun’ newspaper MacKenzie wrote “"If you heard the sound of weeping as you passed the William Hill finance department yesterday, it was the chief executive writing me the STG500 cheque for my Lockerbie bomber bet."

In December 1988 Megrahi was sentenced to a life in prison after he was found guilty of being responsible for bombing an airplane over Scotland and killing all 270 passengers on board. In August 2009 Megrahi was released from prison after it was announced that he was in the terminal stages of prostate cancer and had only another three months to live. At the moment Megrahi is living in the capital of Libya, Tripoli, with his family. There has been much controversy surrounding the release of Megrahi, especially after it was suggested that BP (British Petroleum) had lobbied the Scottish government for a Libya prison transfer agreement. However, it has been made clear by the Scottish government that they “had no contact from BP in relation to Mr. Al-Megrahi.