El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-03-05
BETTING ON THE
WEATHER REPORT
Pool Sellers Make Most of
the Money; Suckers Keep
the Game Going.

Albany. n Y, Mar. 5.-Twenty-thrue
hundred dollars profit 4 day on the
weather sounds like easy money.
That is the rake-off said to be made
daily by syndicate operating IRON
Albany which makes pools on tie
weather This concern sells an average
OF 10000 tickets each day, pays out
$500 in prizes and pockets the balance
The syndicate here is operated by
the same men who give the public a
chance to bet on baseball games in
summer The syndicate is usually on
the sunny side of Easy Street no mat
ter what the temperature, which usual
" is zero for the bettors
In the weather pool, the system IS
much the same as in the baseball pool.
The English Lloyds, has long been
betting on the weather, IN a sense. II
rain on a certain day would mean
financial loss. Lloyd's for a small pre-
MUM win insure against rain on that
day But these weather pools are en-
tirelyAnew; Only those who buy tickets
in them and the Syndicate's numerous
agents are supposed to know of their
existence but it is. possible that the
police of certain cities know.
Here Are The Cities You Guess At.
Those who buy tickets do so blindly.
In the is cent pool there is handed OF
sent to a player a sealed envelope con-
tanning a card on which are the names
of four cities from this list:
Atlantic City, N. j.; Buffalo, n. Y;
Boston, Mass; Cleveland, O.; Chic2-O,
Ill; Charleston S. c.; Des Moines, Ia;
Denver, Colo: Detroit, Mich; EastPort,
Me. Galveston, TAX; Jacksonville,
Fla; Kansas City, 40; Louisville, KY;
Milwaukee. Wis; Montgomery, Ala;
Memphis, Ten; New Orleans, La New
York, n Y; Pittsburg, Pa; Portland,
ore; Phoenix, Ariz. Roswell, n. NJ;
Raleigh n. c.. San Diego Calf; San
Francisco, Cal. Scranton, Pa; st. Louis,
Mo; Salt Lake City, Utah; Syracuse,
n Y; Tampa, Fla, ana washington,
The weather gambler must take the
ticket sent to him in the sealed enve-
Iope. On it he writes his guess as to
what the temperature viii be the next
day in the four cities, the names Of
which it bears.
First prize goes TO him whose four
correct guesses form the highest sum
total in a given pool Reports Of the
weather bureau at Washington decide
the pools
Prizes For the BoObs. Too.
The first prize gizsn by the Albany
syndicate is $50; The second prize, SIS;
third, $40; fourth S45 fifth, $40. sixth,
S35. seventh, S30; eighth, SIS. As in
the baseball pools, there are b Oby''
prizes for those whose guesses are
furthest from correct total These are:
First prize $50; second, $50; third, $50.
There are also twenty special prizes
of IS each and twenty of $3.50. These
the players win whether their guesses
are high or low. "Spec ial prize" and the
amount is written on the back of forty
tickets, probably to create the impress
sion that even the syndicate does not
know what ticket a sealed euvelC-e
contains. But there is a strong suspi-
cion that the poolmakers know very
well.
Violates Lottery Law.
a 25-cent pool has its office at q
point in the Susquehanna valley. In its
wheeling literature this syndicate
explains:
The combination that a patron
wishes to play is selected as follows:
He picks any six different numbers,
one to thirty inclusive. These numbers
viii represent six different cities. one
for each day of the (following) week,
starting with Sunday. At the time a
patron picks these six numbers he does
not know, nor do we know, what cities
they viii represent. Each Saturday a
drawing is made to determine what
the number Of each city shall be for
the following week, and the result of
this drawing is Immediately sent to
agents, along with the list of winners
Tor the previous week"