250 RACING. 



solvency, the betting is carried on in more genuine fashion. 

 The ready-money bookmakers especially, who can make no bad 

 debts, not uncommonly continue to lay against all or nearly all 

 the horses in a race ; and as these gentlemen when once they 

 have established a clientele seem to prosper exceedingly, it is 

 fair to suppose that the all-round book is not unremunerative 

 even at prices which satisfy a very shrewd class of customers ; 

 for it is a noticeable feature in the ready-money trade that 

 a wrangle over the odds is never heard, as is so frequently 

 the case where the transactions are 'on the nod.' When the 

 terms are ' Cash,' bargaining seems to be out of the question. 

 ' How much So-and-So ? ' inquires the would-be backer, and 

 if the answer does not meet his requirements, he turns away 

 without more ado, and takes his money elsewhere. Why the 

 Legislature should have set its face against ready-money betting 

 surely the fairest method of speculation which can be 

 imagined it is not easy to understand. If the authorities acted 

 with any hope of suppressing betting, they must have been 

 grievously disappointed ; for not only does wagering go on 

 more briskly than ever, but the impossibility of preventing the 

 immediate exchange of coin of the realm is demonstrated on 

 every racecourse, both before and after every race. Even at 

 Newmarket, the most that can be done is to issue a manifesto 

 against illegal betting, and against the use of clogs, stools, 

 umbrellas, or any too flagrant symbol of the forbidden trade, 

 and then more or less to take it on trust that people will bet 

 legally, whatever that may mean. 



A Cabinet Minister once said that * In legislating on the 

 subject of ready-money betting, you have to consider whether 

 a man is more likely to steal money in order to enable him to 

 make a bet at all, or in order that he may pay after he has lost.' 

 An utterance which was not rendered the less enigmatic by 

 the speaker refraining from expressing his own opinion on the 

 knotty point. 



One of the stock arguments against the posting of money in 

 advance by the backer is that it is such an unfairly one-sided 



