The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-03
PROFITS OF BooKMAKERs.
Not Printers or Binders, But the
People Who Clear Bets at the Race
Track,
From Harner,s Weeklv.

4IdCh.
From Harper's Weekly.
Racing in America is not in as good
repute as it was some years ago. 1t has
now become a regular business instead of
a sport, and the bookmakers of the bet
lingering probably have more to say in
managing races than any other class of
men. These bOokmakers are not only
owner of horses, but owners and
managers of race tracks. They make the
laws of the racing world, and break those
laws whenever it suits them. A more
idiotiC idea never existed in the world
than that a man by persistent betting and
good luck'' could overcome the percent
age that the bOOkmaKerS have in their
favor.
If men must bet on horse races. itwould
probably be better, and more in their
favor if the bookmakers regulated the
odds entirely according to the amount of
money placed on each horse. Then the
bettors would merely be paying to the
book maker a certain percentage for his
services in clearing the bets. But, as has
been said before, many boOkmakers are
also horse owners and race track owners.
Under such circumstances, it can be
readily believed that they have every
facility to win the money of bettOrs, with
out giving the latter any chance what
a
in league with bookmaker, has a horse
of great speed and endurance. The book
maker causes this horse to be beaten re-
peatedly by inferior animals. The race
going public concludes that the horse is
not nearly so good as had been thought.
This conviction having been arrived at,
the bOokmaker puts him in a race; the
public bets heavily upon other horses, the
bOOkmaker giving all kinds of odds, so
as to induce heavy betting. Then,
in the race, his horse, or the
horse he controls is cut loose, and wins
not only the stake or purse, but all the
money in the book. The men who go into
the business of book making are not, as
rule, persons of the highest moral sense.
The legitimate profit from book made
with mathematical eXactness should be
great enough to satisfy the desires of any
well-regulated man. But the chances in
favor of making a large sum out of race
by methods rightly considered to be dis
reputable, are so great that IL IS a most
exceptional book maker who will not 90
into a combination or conspiracy TO de-
ceive and rob the public. At an ordinary
race meeting there are fifty book-makers
in the ring Sometimes there are as
many as eighty. When there are fifty
the expenses of these bOOk-makers are
s., 500 a day, or SIP, 800 for a meeting of
fifteen days. Now, it is absolutely neces-
sary for these book-makers to tax the
bettOrs during the meeting Sll2.5O0. Each
book-maker, of course tries to make a
good deal more than expenses, and if
they all succeed, the tax would be at
least S225,000 during each meeting
of fifteen days. If we should
add to this amount 800 900, as
the amount won by the book-makers,
not as mathmeticians, but as gamblers,
we should come to something near the
amount that the book makers exact from
the public at each race-meeting of fifteen
DAYS. This 1925, 0O0 only represents the
amount of money that the book makers
take from the public in an ordinary race
meeting 1t is probable that there is
small and select ring Of bettors who win
at pretty nearly every meeting Certainly
these winnings must average $4,000 at
each meeting This would make grand
total of $500, 600 that the public pays for
the privilege of betting a a race meeting
of fifteen DAYS 1t would be hard TO get
at the volume of betting at each race
meeting. but a half million dollars is a
very large sum of money, and Il great
many pocket-bOOks have to be emptled TO
make it up. The ordinary visitor TO
race track probably pays, even though he
have good fortune. a tax of 10 per cent.
unon an of his wagres. At this rate, TAX
inc five successful and five unsuccessful
bets. the capital first invested is likely to
be exhausted after ten races have been
speculated upon.