The white Christmas that made British roads treacherous has cost bookies thousands, however, a white Christmas in London would have made it worse. The first white Christmas for most of Northern Ireland, Scotland, north Wales and parts of northwest England in years has bookies paying bettors, Sky News reported Sunday. Between 1971 to 1992 it only snowed in 1980 across the United Kingdom on Christmas Day, but from 1993 to 2003 it snowed five times. Bookies tabulate a snowfall if sleet or snow falls at the weather centers in London, Birmingham and Manchester in England; Cardiff, Wales; Belfast, Northern Ireland, or Aberdeen, Scotland, during the 24 hour-period of Christmas. “We’re not too frosty about the prospect of paying out as it is the first time we have done so since 2001,” Ladbrokes spokesman Warren Lush. “This said, we estimate it has cost us over $961,000 as the record gamble started with a flurry and turned into an avalanche.” © Copyright 2004 by United Press International

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