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he buyer of the larger share of the chances. If he bought nine tickets out of ten, he might put in 71., pretending to put in 91., and pocket 21.; whereas if he only bought one ticket, he could only defraud his companion by a few shillings out of the price of that ticket. Now, this is the hardship under which the fraudulent bettor labors. He cannot, at least he cannot generally, get at the stakes themselves: or, which comes to the same thing, he must pay up in full when he loses, otherwise he has soon to give up his profitable trade. Of course he may levant without paying, but this is only to be adopted as a last resource; and fraudulent betting is too steadily remunerative to be given up for the value of a single robbery of the simpler kind. Thus the bettor naturally prefers laying the odds. He can keep so much more out of the larger sum which ought to be laid against a horse than he could out of the smaller sum with which the horse should be backed.
Then there is another circumstance which still more strongly encourages the fraudulent bettor to lay the odds. It is much easier for him to get his victims to. back a horse than to bet against one. In the first place, the foolish folk who expect to make a fortune by betting, take fancies for a particular horse, while they are not so apt to take fancies against any particular horse. But secondly, and this is the chief reason of their mode of betting, they want to make a great and sudden gain at a small risk. They have not time, for the most part, to make many wagers on any given race;
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