Betting : the Theory and Practice explained. 



85 



you come off quits ; if B wins, you lose 1,000 clear, and if C wins, 

 you have to pay 4,000 whilst only receiving 1,000 apiece from A 

 and B. 



The usual mode by which a professional bookmaker proceeds is 

 first to give, at as early a date as'possible, the long odds against 

 every horse entered for a P.P. race, for which he can find backers. 

 (By a P. P. or "Play or Pay" race is meant one in which the 

 backer of a horse must pay his stake if it fails to win, even though 

 it does not come to the starting post). The bookmaker will not 

 generally lay more odds against any horse than the figure repre- 

 senting half the number likely to be entered; for instance, if there 

 were thirty horses, he would not wish to lay more than 15 to 1 

 against any one of them. The reason for this is, that he cannot 

 expect that more than half the horses will find backers, and he 

 must keep on the safe side, but the more horses that find backers 

 the better for him. It is greatly to his advantage if an outsider 

 win, because, in that case, he does not lose the (relatively) heavy 

 stake for which the favourite. was backed. To make this clearer, 

 refer to the first list of ten horses given above. Should J, the 

 last on the list, win. the layer of the long odds, besides paying 

 1,000, only loses the small stake of £90, whereas if A win, he has 

 still to pay the 1,000, and does not receive the £500 for which 

 A was backed. 



Having completed his book satisfactorily, the professional sees 

 how much in any case he must win, and he can either* invest this 

 amount in backing any horse he fancies, or he can lay twice over 

 against any horses which he thinks unlikely to win, or he may 

 make a second book on the same principle as the first. 



If a person could bet against every horse in a race, except 

 the one or two that are most likely to win, it would consider- 

 ably increase his profits. Hence the vociferous yells, sc 

 familiar to the ears of every frequenter of English race- 

 courses, offers to bet against everything "bar one" or "bar 

 two," the one or two barred, or in other words, against v/hich 

 the speaker declines to bet at all being those which, in h.'v- 

 opinion, are likely to damage his profits. 



A serious drawback to betting is the chance of not being paid 

 when you do win. There are two modes in England of lessen- 

 ing this evil : one is, that either party to a bet may demand 

 stakes to be made fourteen days before the race, provided 

 that he can satisfy the Committee of Tattersall's that he has 

 cause for so doing ; the other way is, if one party to a bet is 

 absent on the day of the race, the other can post a copy of the 

 bet up in the ring one hour before the race to which the bet 

 refers, and if no competent person makes himself responsible 

 for the amount, a written declaration that the bet is void can 



