If you bet on sporting events, you might want to read this, or at least avoid Paddy Power bookmakers. I'm sorry it's so long, but the story was an even longer five pages so I couldn't just put a link.

From the Times Sports pages, Sunday 24 May.

A few days before the Irish Open, Noel Egan was having a drink in his local, Baggots Back Door in Clara, when a friend of his called and said the Paddy Power bookmakers in Tullamore were going 3000-1 Shane Lowry to win at Baltray. Egan genuinely felt Shane could win the Irish Open and though he made only three bets in his life and never staked more than ten euro, he decided to put 50 each way on his best friend.
The difficulty was that when he put his card into the hole in the wall, the response was disappointing. His brother Gerard agreed to loan him the hundred but when Gerard got to the bookies, he rang and said he’d put 25 each way on for him. “Fifty is enough,” said Gerard. “No,” said Noel, “please put on 50 each way.” If the truth is told, Noel Egan had already calculated his winnings, 187,000 euro - enough to set him up for life.
Gerard agreed. And he had 25 each way for a friend, ten each way for another friend and ten each way for himself. On Friday evening after Shane shot 62 and was joint leader going into the weekend, Noel felt the 187 grand was in the bag. He couldn’t help thinking of what he might do with the winnings. He would pay off his ten grand loan at the Credit Union, he would change his nine-year-old car that leaks oil onto the driveway at his parents’ home, he would buy his mum something lovely and he would take Shane shopping.
Then on Monday morning, after the show was over, Noel saw it in a newspaper. A spokesman for the Paddy Power organisation said there had been a mistake, some punters had been given 3000-1 Shane Lowry to win the Irish Open when the price should have been 300-1. They had tried to contact the punters who had been given this “erroneous” price but had not got to all of them. Noel Egan and his brother’s friends hadn’t heard a thing from Paddy Power.
Their dockets said 3000-1. It was the price they had been given. Gerard, a mild-mannered man, spoke with a high-up representative of the bookies. He was told Paddy Power didn’t mind bad publicity and that if the lads took on the might of Paddy Power, they wouldn’t win and might get nothing. Then they were offered 1000-1, and had until the following morning to decide. They then got another call and were told the 1000-1 offer was available for ten minutes and then it would be withdrawn.
Ten minutes to decide, Noel Egan accepted. Even if it was 125 grand short of what he felt entitled to, 62 grand was a lot of money. But that’s not the reason Noel accepted. Rather it was out of loyalty to Shane, the truest friend he’s ever had. “I know what was done to us was wrong. With that ten minutes thing, I feel we were blackmailed. But how could I complain about getting 62 grand when Shane played unbelievable golf to win a tournament worth 500 grand and didn’t get a penny. What kind of ungrateful bastard would I have been to say 62 grand wasn’t enough?”