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0 ,, G
£1,140 to £60 ,, H
£1,150 to £50 ,, K
But 'he reasons (with intending backers) that 'the race is a moral certainty for A, and that it is giving away money' to lay more than (in all) 8001. to $001. Again, 'B is a much better horse than people think, so that 9001. to 200/. is quite long enough odds against him ;' as for C, 'no wonder backers stand by him at the odds ;' for his part the bookmaker 'thinks him better than B; and see what Augur says of him !' and so forth, wherefore he cannot find it in his conscience to lay more than 950/. to 150/. (in all) against him. (It gets easier as the non-favorites are reached to get the odds shortened.) So he deals with each, cutting off about 1001. (let us say) from the amount he ought to lay against them severally; but with the horses low in favor, he can easily cut off more, and the system not only does not forbid this but encourages it. Say, however, only 100/., and then his book is complete.
The bookmaker can now watch the race with thorough enjoyment. The pleasure of the backers of
the favorites is a good deal impaired by anxiety, and though backers of non-favorites have less to lose, they have more to gain, and less chance of gaining it: so they too are anxious. But the bookmaker can watch the race with perfect calmness.
For, let the race go as it may, he must clear 100/. If A win, the bookmaker willingly pays A's backers 800/., receiving 200/. from the backers of B, 150/. from those of C, and so on--in all, 900/. If B win, the bookmaker pays B s backers 900/., and receives from the backers of A, C, D, &c., 1,000/.; and so on, whichever horse may win. There is not, as a rule, any fear about being paid; these are debts of honor, and to be paid before all sordid trade debts--nay, so sacred are these debts, that many of the bookmaker's clients would deem it better to break open a till, or to embezzle a round sum from an employer, than to leave them unpaid. So he is under no anxiety. Thus does the bookmaker make a steady income out of his victims, who go not only complacently to their fate, but even with a look of wisdom as if they were rather cleverly taking advantage of the proffered gifts of fortune.
It is easier to tell how they lose than to show how the bookmaker gains. They adopt the other and simpler part of the bookmaker's system. He always lays the odds a little short: they always take them so. They back the favorite boldly, but they do not fail to take fancies for non-favorites, and to back their fancies
in the case of a horse which is morally sure to win, or to insist on ten to one when sure the odds are not seven to one against a horse. When the simpleton wins he assures himself he is ' in the vein,' and goes on betting; if he loses, he assures himself ' the luck must change,' and goes on betting. By continuing patiently on this course, it will be odd if he do not learn before long --how it is that the bookmakers make so much money.
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