Irish Treat Their Crazed Gamblers Well

Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET

What would you do if your local bookmaker shorted you $2 on a winning bet you'd placed? Go home, get your sledgehammer, and totally smash the joint up, right? No? Oh, well, anyway, some guy in Ireland opted for that particular course of action about a year ago, much to the horror of employees at a Paddy Power in Dublin. And now a sympathetic judge has let pissed-off punter John McCormac off without jail time for his destructive frenzy, leaving it entirely up to him as to whether or not he should repay the bookmaker for the €18,000 in damage he caused. Though the rampage was the most "violent, ridiculous attack" ever visited upon the betting operation, the judicial arrangement is completely acceptable to the bookmakers, who said they simply won't be "inviting McCormac around for tea any time soon." Irish Independent