The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-06-04
TRACK BOOK|ES
LIKELY To 60
Old Style Betting Steadily
Loses Ground to Pari-
Mutuel System.
FRENCH METHOD BECOMES
POPULAR IN KENTUCKY
How Laying Of Odds Gained
Favor; Old Timers Still in
Business.

In Canada and In various states or
the union there is every disposition to
knock out the professional bookmaker.
Legislation is aimed at him in the homes
of racing, and with a recent decision
against the Latonia race track which
may put an end to the domination of
certain element in Kentucky attention
is directed to what at one time was
considered the handspring of all race
meetings. Possibly this form of bet
ting may be completely eliminated in
course of time, but so long as news.
papers report results of races there will
be more or less bookmaking OF hand.
book betting as simple as A, B, G, and
not necessarily accompanied with
brass band. AS substitute, betting in
the parimutuels could be offered TO the
public if it were legal in all states.
There can be seen almost every day
in the Astor house rotunda two we'll
preserved men who have done much in
the past to make bookmaking a popu-
lar vehicle of speculation on races In
this country. These men, Henry Sted.
eker and Ridge Leven, were asked re-
Gently to tell something about the early
days of bookmaking in America.
'!You couldn't have met anybody
who knows more about it, answered
Stedeker. ''In the year 1872 Joe Glea-
son, now dead, and l were selling thea
ter tickets in front of the old Olympic
theater on Broadway, where George j..
Fox was playing in Humpty Dumpty.'
Two years after that both of us were
dead broke and L. suggested to Gleason
that it might be a good idea to locate
in some billiard room and lay odds on
the races then being run at Saratoga,
Monmouth Park. Pimlico and in the
west We found place at as, Third
avenue, and began to do little bust.
ness.
How it Started.
"a year or two later we went up to
Jerome park, and ! was one of nine
men parading up and down and carry
ing bags over our shoulders, offering
odds la Newmarket. Among the nine
were the late Modoc Fox, s. Howland
Robbins, John McDougall, John Hack.
EFT, backed by Ridge Levein, A. H.
Cridge and Henry Stanford. The last
named was an Englishman with long.
gray beard, who was induced by Pierre
Lorillard to come over here and edu-
cate Americans in the then unknown
method Of bookmaking Rowland Rob
bins also had Mr.. Lorillard s support,
not only moral but actual In fact, as
was often the case in those days in Eng.
land when many noblemen became anna
teur bookmakers, Pierre Lorillard real
~ was an amateur layer in this coun-
try: That was the beginning of book
making here.'
''How much money did Joe Gleason
accumulatei' was asked.
That / don't know said Stede-
ker, but ] do know that the amount
accredited to him was vastly exagger
ated. However, he had almost a mo-
nopoly of the one, two. three form of
mutation of a handsome fortune. He|
lived for many years in one Of the fin
est houses In Saratoea. 1t was on
Union avenue. Gleason used to invite
prominent racing men from various
parts of the country TO partake of his
hospitality. 1t had taken the public
a long time to realize that il was lust
as hard to make money betting onI
horses TO be third as it did to pick win.
ners straight 1t really never was | to
2, TO 2, and 3 TO in his books, as
some have said, but he framed the odds
IN such way that Of course he had the
best of it no matter how it would
come. But even in those early DAYS he
never tried to get the public to play
horses at such ruinous odds as are fre.
quently seen quoted on the Jacksonville
races.
Stedeker, w. H. Cheppu and w. At
kinson were pioneer odd layers in the
west also. At the spring meeting at
Lexington in 1880 they were the only
three layers doing business. All three
made money, Atkinson kept fish store
on Third avenue. Cheppu was at one
time half owner of the strongest stable
Continued on Following Page.