THE STATE OF THE ODDS. 313 



papers as a " great blow for the book-makers," while 

 the success of a rank outsider will be described as " a 

 misfortune to backers." 



But there is another circumstance which tends to 

 make the success of a favorite a blow to layers of the 

 odds, .and vice versa. In the case we have supposed, 

 the money actually pending about the four horses 

 (that is, the sum of the amounts laid for and against 

 them) was 140 as respects the favorite, 126 as 

 respects the second, 105 as respects the third, and 

 90 as respects the fourth. But, as a matter of fact, 

 the amounts pending about the favorites bear always 

 a much greater proportion than the above to the 

 amounts pending about outsiders. It is easy to see 

 the effect of this. Suppose, for instance, that instead 

 of the sums 84 to 56, 84 to 42, 84 to 21, and 

 84 to 6, a book-maker had laid 8,400 to 5,600, 

 840 to 420, 84 to 21, and 14 to 1, respective- 

 ly then it will easily be seen that he would lose 

 7,958 by the success of the favorite ; whereas he would 

 gain 4,782 by the success of the second horse, 5,937 

 by that of the third, and 6,027 by that of the fourth. 

 We have taken this as an extreme case ; as a general 

 rule, there is not so great a disparity as has been here 

 assumed between the sums pending on favorites and 

 outsiders. 



Finally, it may be asked whether, in the case of 

 horses having unequal chances, it is possible that 



14 



