The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-10-12
Football Pools Give Fans
Fun, But Loads of Losses
Too
Is Ruled by
Sentiment
FIGURES TELL
BY FRANK BUCK" ONEILL

There is no closed season on
the Great American Sucker. The
game commissions Of the several
States have thrown him on his
own resources, and even benign
Congress has passed him up COM
pletely. Just let a Soft Touch
show his face on Broadway, and a
horde Of Takers swarm around
him fighting for his money as
buzZardS fight over desert cadaver.
Wilson Miner long ago was
asked to reveal the secret Of sue
cess. Hard bitten dweller Of the
worlds boulevards, playwright.
manager Of fighters, and Trainer
of epigrams, he replied:
'Never give a sucker an even
break"
The sellers Of football pools
have followed the doctrine of the
departed Miner. They lay 6 to /
that the Great American Sucker
cannot pick four winners from a
card selected with expert care.
The correct odds, according to
mathematician, who broke the
whole thing down and showed the
many combinations of happenings
possible on any program featur-
ing evenly matched teams, should
be nearer to 20 to J..
TAKES THE WORST
But the great American sucker
takes the worst Of it with gleeful
willingness, and pits q knowledge
Of teams which often is haphaZ-
ard. and too often SWayed by SEN
timent against the expert knowl-
edge and unbeatable percentages
Of the gamblers.
The pool sellers have another
card which extends the option of
giving or taking points; a handi.
cap pool. You get 4 to / for cor.
rectly handicapping three teams;
to / for correctly handicapping
four teams, and 10 to l for prop
erly handicapping five teams. The
odds are figured to be closer to
20 to /, 10 to and about so to !.
Suppose on last Saturday you
took the handicap card and
favored Notre Dame over Illinois.
You spotted the Illini IA points.
Since the teams played a ScoreleSs
tie, you lost. For all ties are
played for the house.
The games on card No. one,
which offers 6 to against your
being able to select four winners,
are chosen with great care. The
card features evenly matched
teams, and always remember that
tie, which works for the gamblers.
Also, there is the increasing mum.
Der of upSetS.
In one handicap card offered to
the public last week 80 games
were listed. Of these, 16 favoriteS
won by at least their handicap.
In the emcining Is games, favor
ties won 10 games, but the bettorS
lost by handicap; there were three
ties in popular games, and three
upsets marked the card.
BET AGAINST THEM
In addition to the tie games,
the gamblers have working for
them those inspired teams which
rise to the heights on one glorious
day. # they do this on the day
you bet against them, conceding
points to the pool sellers, it is
lust too bad. Also working for
the gambler is the team that SUI
ferS a let down on a day it Is
picked to win handily.
Odds Of 6 to / on the four
game cards in which you pick
teams without conceding points,
are ridiculously short and out Of
line. Breaking it down, it makes
each game w to /. But in four
games the gamblers have eight
chances to win to four for you,
and all too often, they know more
about teams than you do. If they
don't, they have selectors working
for them who have forgotten more
football than the Great American
Sucker ever will learn.
Do you know whether STAN
ford went into the game with
U. C. L. A. at full strength? What
do you know about the real
strength Of Utah and Idaho?
Nothing? Well, the pool boys Of
fered these games to you. The
odds are easily 20 to /, and you
thought you were getting a break
at 8 to /.
And when it comes to conceding
points: well, you are Just lead
ing with your chin. This will be
established quite clearly by the
table which accompanies this ar
ticle.
Three games played on satur-
day dumped q fortune into the
laps Of the pool sellers. Duke and
Tennessee, which headed the four.
game 6-to-1 pool, played a score
less tie. There was a wad of
money bet on that game. It is
impossible to accurately estimate
the amount Of money that flowed
into the gamblers tills on the
1llinoiS-Notre Dame ScorelesS tie.
Villanova and Auburn were played
heavily in the South, and they
played tie.
The inspired teams referred to
above on Saturday included Uni
versity Of Indiana, which out
played itself and held Minnesota
to six points. In the handicap
pool you took Minnesota and
spotted Indiana 2 points. Pitt
was rated 13 points better than
DuqueSne, but won by only six