San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-04-14

a general Impression among that
portion OF the public which has no
particular interest in matters per-
tanning to the turf is that the race
track speculator is an easy mark
for the bookmakers, and that the
occupation OF the latter is to rake
in the shekels and pay out about
half as much at every race as they
take in.
That this Impression is an erro.
neous one anybody who is well in
formed about racing and race tracks
will testify. That the average turf
SPECTATOR loses in the long run
everybody knows to be a fact; but
there ara other spectators who do
not lose, men who are shrewd and
know just when and how to place
their money, and more than one
bookmaker who has been caught
mapping has had to pay out his
last dollar to satisfy the claims
against him. A little careful OBJ
servation will show that bookmak-
ing is not the easy game it is made
out to be, and that dozens OF "boOk-
les" are obliged to give up business
every season on account # losses.
Outside of the regular habitues
OF the track there ara few people
who know just how great the ex-
pense of conducting a book is. In
the first place, 500 a day must be
paid to the association by each
bookmaker. Then there are three
clerks, whose salaries for the work
they do are simply enormous.
The cashier receives $40 or $15 q
day, and the card and sheet
writer's get $40 day apiece. The
sheet writer is the only one of
the clerks who comes anywhere
near
EARNING HIS SALARY.
His work is really hard, and to
be successful he must be a quick
mathematician and a good PEN
man. His duty is to record the
bets on sheets as fast as they are
made, and in addition to this he
must at any time be able to tell
the bookmaker just how much the
book stands to win or lose in the
event of any particular horse win
ming. The cardwriter simply
writes the bet on the card, which
card the Spectator gets as security
for his money.
This brings the daily expenses Of
the bookmaker up to $135 day,
exclusively of other expenses.
Amounting to $15 or 500 a day.
u The prices for special service diff
fer on the different tracks. Thus,
while on some tracks the books are
obliged to contribute to the sup
port and maintenance OF the man
who brings around the scratches"
the water man, the announcer and
the hundred and one other officials
and supernumeraries, on others all
of this is supplied gratis.
From this statement some idea
of what a bookmaker has got to
win on the first race in order to
make him even can be gained. The
truth OF the matter is that every
bookmaker starts the day loser,
and only good luck and careful
manipulation of the odds will pull
him safely through the day.
If the associations would let a
man pay his fee for the day each
morning and go and make book it
would not be so bad, but they will
not.
To make book on any Of the big
tracks one must pay for five days
in advance, and, as the amount OF
money thus exacted often cOnsti.
tutes over a quarter OF the book.
makers bank roll, there are dozens
who are Obliged to remain idle, be-
cause such payment would so re-
duce their funds that it would be
unsafe for them to take any
chances.
Bookmakers, as known to racing
people. are divided into two classes
First. there are the solid men who
have been booking for years, and
whose fortunes are so large that q
week, or even a month, of heavy
losing makes but little difference
in their solvency.
The money they have behind
them is sufficient to last until the
luck changes, and then, when that
point is reached, they generally re-
gain all they have lost and more
besides. 1t is a
REGULARITY OF BooKMAKING.
That the men who conduct bust
: ness every day during the racing
sesso1, taking bad days and good
! days with equal equanimity, arc
rarely losers at the finish. 1t takes
a tremendous bank roll, however
to cope against long season Of
hard luck, and only the very solid
men are able to do it. The other
class of bookmakers are the "shoe.
stringn gamblers. No one knows
where the term originated, but in
race-track parlance men who make
book with a roll of $4,000 or $4,000
are "shoestring" gamblers.
There are dozens OF these men