BOOKMAKERS AND BOOKMAKING 191 



has not taken enough, or nearly enough, money 

 about the rest of the field to provide what he has 

 to disburse to pay those who have backed the 

 winner. 



A great many people suppose that the book- 

 maker has much the best of most deals on the 

 course. This may have been so formerly, but is 

 by no means now the case. On the contrary, at 

 the present time the well-informed, acute backer 

 has just the best of it. Bookmaking was a 

 fortune ; it is at present hardly a living, and this 

 has been the case for some five years past. The 

 two American invasions took many thousands out 

 of the rings — never to return. There was, for a 

 while, a tendency to underrate the invaders for one 

 thing — it took a long time to make us realise what 

 clever people they were ; and for another, not a 

 few of them were wealthy men who could afford 

 to wait their turn if things did not go well, and to 

 make up for past mishaps with a huge balance to 

 the good. Also some who were hard hit simply 

 went home again leaving their accounts unsettled, 

 though in many instances they had previously 

 won, and of course been paid. 



Bad debts are perhaps the chief bugbear of the 

 business. I may claim to be — the claim is, I am 

 sure, one that the Editor of the Badminton Magazine 



