The Washington herald., 1912-02-12
TELEGRAPH LEAK
COSTS THOUSANDS
Operators ~cut in" on Wire
From Tracks and
Clean Up.
POOL ROOMS THE LOSERS
Real Results We're Held Up and
Fake Messages Wired-Big Win
nings Made on Westbury.

By leak in the telegraph service and
Me successful operations of insiders in
che securing Of the code" which is
sally used between the race tracks now
operating and the poolrOOms in the East.
Al least 100000 has been cleaned up in
he past week, according to information
,hat comes from one of the poolroom
operators who has been "stung." and, as
lv quoted in the vernacular, "stung COM
.nE and going
1t appears that a wire now carrying
t-le information to New York. Pittsburg.
Chicago, and the West, and which runs
through a number of offices in the South,
vas cut in" and as the information
Vas passing through in the code, II was
copied and note made of the names OF
the winning horses after each race had
been run. In this manner, after several
days Of close observation, the code was
finally 'doped" out and operations be-
gan to work out to the operators great
advantage. In fact, it worked so fast
hat one Of the poolrOoms in a near by
,ity lost upward Of $1,000 on one day in
his manner.
well organized gang OF operators
and men with the doodle" were in league
With each other and each was placed in
4 different section of the country. As
soon as the winner was flashed out from
the nearest telegraph office to the
racks, the message was intercepted and
r chaser sent on ahead informing the
ronfCderatGs Of the names Of the winning
horses and the prices on the same After
time had been given to get a bet down,
the real massage came along, and as
there is much difficulty i'm getting infor-
nation from the tracks, the poolTOOms
allow a little time in which 10 make a
bet. The first betting, 4 rule, has
bren reaching the poolrooms about the
time the. horses were of and. as a
rule. at least five minutes is given TO
make a wager before closing the race.
In one poolrUUm in particular near this
ity. where no ore is allowed to leave
the room while the prices are on the
wall. a system was devised whereby the
- meaning Of certain. jockeys or certain
prices that came over the wire indicated
winning horses. This scheme was car
ried out 50 successfully that the above
mentioned room was ''stung" for nearly
$500 on one race last Thursday. AS a
rule the horses played were the long
priced ones and there was not much
trouble in getting the money down, the
rooms were hard hit.
Information Is Reliable.
The facts became known through IN
side information received from a source
that cannot be doubted. and the same
has been verified by those who know
the inner workings of the pool who so
successfully carried out their coup"
1t has now been arranged that here
after all messages will be in plain Eng
rsh and each race will close exactly at
POST time, which will be teIegrap aphed i'm
m at frpT hn no
atOrs who pulled this coup off are
well known TO the racing fraternity, and
expressions were heard from those who
are interested in bookmaking that there
was not the slightest reason to believe
that the information they received for |
the operations OF the poolroOms was. not |
the first" information. whereas as mat
Ter OF fact the first and real Information /
WAS intercepted. and held up long enough |
+" allow the men working the scheme to !
get their money down, and then the real !
Information was sent along.
With the winning Of Westbury on Fri !
day at the long Cdds of 80 to ], and which !
subsequently was backed to 20 to l, the |
poUIrooms lost tons OF money on the !
same. Many poolrOoms in despair tried to 1
lay OF part Of the money. hut on each
offcr they were informed that they were
loaded" up on this horse.
Leaks Are Sealed.
Every available means OF intercepting
The leak in the future is now COM
plete, and the company which carries the
Information has placed a ban on any in
formation leaking out. As the messages
have all been in code. not much atten-
tion has been paid to them, as they did
not signify anything in particular, and |
went by Unnoticcd in the general rush
II messages OF similar character which
pass through the offices each day.
Now that the companies are aware OF
The nature of the messages which they
have been carrying, it is doubtful if they
will accept any messages in the future
that relate to racing, other than that
used for press services.
II is q well known fact that both the
telegraph and telephone companies are
bitterly opposed to the transmission OF
such messages. and the outcome as to
how the pOolrooms will now obtain their
news is looked forward to by the bet