MODERN BETTING ILLUSTRATED, ETC. 207 



manners were overlooked. Several of the gentle- 

 men who owned race-horses soon discovered that 

 the mere winning of a stake by means of any 

 particular race, however large the sum run for 

 might be, did not reimburse them for the outlays 

 which they had to make by keeping a stud of 

 horses ; hence the horse became an instrument of 

 gambling, and remains so at the present time. 



II. 



Betting on greyhound coursing, especially in 

 connection with the struggle for the Waterloo 

 Cup, run for amid the distraction and ditches 

 of Altcar, is assumed to be gambling in excelsis. 

 When a person backs a horse for a race, the 

 event is decided, so to speak, in an instant ; 

 there may of course be a dead heat, but dead 

 heats are sufficiently rare, and need not be 

 calculated upon. When a man bets on the Derby, 

 he is delivered from all suspense within three or 

 four minutes after the fall of the starter's flag. 

 But it is not so in the case of the dogs. On the 

 average of the courses decided at Altcar, a brace 

 of greyhounds will keep the bettor in suspense 

 for six minutes or so, and when it is considered, 

 in the case of a stake in which sixty-four dogs 

 take part, six races must be run before the backer 

 of a dog to win the Cup can receive his money, 

 it will be sufficiently obvious that very long odds 

 ought to be obtained against those dogs which 

 take part in the struggle. Such, however, as 

 a rule, is not the case, and sanguine men have 

 been known to accept odds against a dog which 

 had six races to run, which they would have 



