BOOKMAKING AND BOOKMAKERS.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1605, 12 April 1879, Page 4

BOOKMAKING AND BOOKMAKERS.

All those who are aware how highly popular and flourishing an institution bookmaking has been in Europe ever since the establishment of horseracing, are interested in observing its progress in the States, Strange to say, American sportsmen do not seem to take very kindly to the system of turf speculation which in England and France has always been found the best. The mutuel pools were perhaps even more the rage in the large American cities than in Paris ; but now the fact is clearly realised that this method of betting is productive of the worst results. The novelty was never received with any favor in England ; and even when the pool agencies established on the Paris boulevards drove a roaring trade, night and day, only the small fry of bettors on the French, English, and Belgian races patronised the shops, the big speculators still carrying on all their operations with the knights of the pencil. Only three or four years ago, Oiler, Cheron, and a host of other worthies saw their rooms overflowing from noon till midnight, in fact, the pool agencies at last became an actual nuisance, the entire neighborhood being flooded with idlers of the lowest description. The scum of Paris drifted into these haunts, and when the Eolice entirely prohibited mutuel pooletting, the true lovers of the turf were the first to reap the benefits of that step, for the racecourse was gradually deserted by the greater part of the beggarly loafers, whose only attraction had been the fallacious hope of gaining a large sum with a trifling stake, Even in the heyday of the pool betting, the large business done by the French bookmakers was never much affected ; but in the States, even now that the surprising success of the French system has died out to a greot extent, people are as slow to adopt bookbetting as they were quick at patronising the pools. Book-betting as practised on Ameri. can courses is a mere parody on the immense operations of the pencillers on both sides of the English Channel, and we think that the chief cause for the non-success of the only legitimate method of betting lies in the inexperience and timidity of our professionals themselves. Anyone accustomed to speculate on the English and French turf would smile to hear the offers made by the bookmakers at Jerome Park. Any man making a book, who is afraid to lay against the most fancied horses, cannot expect to have a good custom or to make large winnings. Novices at the business will entrench themselves behind the mathematical proportion which is in their favor, and thereby they net insignificant gains, whereas by the bolder method of the European “ bookies,” if lucky at all, they might realise large profits. The only way the leviathan bookmakers in Prance and England have made money is by “peppering the favorites.” The “glorious uncertainty” of horseracing is bound to pull them through iu the long run. It is only people who know nothing whatever, practically, of book-making who fancy that a bookmaker’s gains are made by laying against every horse in the race at a rate of odds that insures him a profit. I read an article the other day by a scientist exposing this fallacious theory, which seems plausible enough on paper, but is utterly impracticable on the course, for no bookmaker could ever be certain of making such operations, or else there would be no such things as “tips” and “ form,” and then betting on races would be simply a lottery, with such an enormous percentage in favor of the layer that no but tho veriest greenhorn would be foolish enough to speculate at a certain D oS> Bookmakers do not win lans' 5 sums by laying against every horse 1“ race, so that whatever comes in «»ey must be gainers; only persons toW unacquainted with the turf fancy that therein lies their advantage, How they win i s by two or three horses only being heavily backed, and those horses about seven times out of ten getting beaten by a rank outsider. Great nerve is required as well as some capital, to take the risks successful bookmakers have to run daily. Often they themselves fancy a certain horse must win, and yet have to lay against him ; but frequently they have a “turn-up,” as they phrase it, and “ skin the lamb,” Anglice, win every bet they have made. Now and again, when only a few horses run in a race, and every one is backed, by clever betting they can “get all round,” as they term it, and hare a slight but certain profit; but in ninety-five races out of a hundred only a few horses are backed, and a large number remain untouched for a penny. The pencillers have to keep on writing down the names of the favorites, and if any one of these wins they are heavy losers; but they nave a lot of starters “running for them,” and if any outsider comes in they net a large stake. Years of experience have proved that backing favorites la a losing game in tho long run, and yet the public will back favorites, so any bookmaker who has plenty of pluck and enough of cash to meet a “ sweetener” now and then, is sure to make a large winning on tho totum of his operations. Good information, knowledge of form, and immehae capital, all these have been brought to bear against that proverbial “ glorious uncertainty ” which really seems to be the fundamental principle on the turf, and all have failed. Great fortunes have been lost in the attempt to “break the ring.” The bookmakers are a powerful fraternity ; they have the advantage over backers, and they keep it. In England to-day, and in France as well, there is a very army of touts, sustained by the professionals. From morning till night, all through the racing year, messages flash along the wires, which in a few minutes entirely alter the state of the market, sent by these indefatigable who infest every training ground and private course in the country, and whose wiles and ruses to surprise secret form, are worthy of tho feats of Cooper’s redskins. It is a daily struggle, hand-to-hand, between the “gentlemen” and the ring, and the ring-men know that although they stand on surer ground, they need all their caution, and all their activity to retain |the advantages they have won.

That book-making is a moat lucrative trade is proved by the fact of so many bookmakers in France and England being men of great wealth. But the timid “ all-round ” layers never come to anything, and this is the reason why the poor-spirited French-born turfite who dabbles in laying the odds is and remains a pettifogger. He wins a trifle every raoe-day, but never has a tithe of the winnings that the bold and plucky Englishman nets when the favorites go wrong. The Frenchman is too small in his views, too deficient in “stomach,” to write up the liberal prices his rivals hold out, and he really seems afraid every horse in the race will win. The heads of the profession in France and England pile up the money against the public fancies, and sometimes are very hard hit, but they have a broad enough view to perceive that three times out of five they will win, and so at the end of the season they can point to thousands of pounds profit. I think it was Crutch Robinson, the once famous English bookmaker, who said his motto was—“ Lay against the favorites as long as you can.”

An instance of the pluck and grit that make a great winner at bookmaking has been furnished in France by the career of Henry b'affrey. About nine years ago Saffrey was a clerk in a clothing store, with small wages, and the usual English love for horsc-racing. He would back hia fancy now and then in the Rue Choiaeul, and one day landed a fair stake. Seeing that the bookmakers had everything their own way, ho resolved to lay the odds, and from the very start he went against the favorites. His capital increased, and his operations expanded, but he stuck to hia principles, and ofiercd the highest odds of anyone. Ho had some knock-down blows, but his pluck and spirit never failed him, while his honesty and his politeness also gained him many customers. He now handles thousandsjevery race-day, and steadily wins, being worth no doubt a half a million dollars, gained in four or five years. Ho is always ready to lay the odds against every horse to any amount, and all the members of the Jockey Club and the Salon des Courses do their business with him. Macevoy is another successful penciller, now very wealthy, whose origin is said to have been extremely low. Wright is also a celebrity of the French turf, a gentlemanly, agreeable man, who

once lost an immense amount on an Epsom Derby, and, though nobody thought lie would stand the shock, came up to time at the settlement with his hat crammed full of bank notes. He now does a good business ; on the French turf. Morris Morris ” they call bim, on account of his rotund corporation —is to be seen at Coney’s and in the ring, transacting large operations in a cpiiot style, with a wonderful facility for calculation, which enables him to know how his book stands, though hundreds of bets have been inscribed. This is a rare faculty, which the Duke of Hamilton did not possess in youth, for lie became involved in such hope'ess confusion with bis first volume on the Derby that he stood to lose an immense sum on any horse, so that his relatives had to step in to prevent the sacrifice. A well-known marchioness, whom all sporting England has often seen following famous finishes in breathless agitation, was little more cognisant of the result of her voluminous though petty operations than his Grace of Hamilton hims If. On the day when the Marquis of Hastings lost a fortune by the defeat of his filly, Lady Elizabeth, in the Middle Park Plate, and stepped down from his coign of vantage with a smooth and smiling countenace, the bewildered lady was emboldened to ask him how fhe stood. “You have lost £22, my lady,” add the unruffled young Lord of Donningtou, as ho handed back with a graceful bow her brightly-bound betting-book, after rapidly computing the disjointed record. He had lost as many thousands. These are degenerate days compared to those of the princely plunger, as well with the bookmakers as the backers. Then the knights of the metallic pencil laid a fortune against a horse in one bet, and sums changed hands over Derbys and Cambridgeshires which would have purchased a town. Heavy betting is no longer the fashion in England, though one would scarcely think so to go into the ring at Epsom, New'market, or Goodwood, to stand in the midst of that swaying, roaring mass of humanity, and hear hundreds and thousands jotted down on every side at a single stroke. The late lamented Mr George Payne was himself a shining light of the plunging school, and had traversed the various periods when speculation on the turf ran very high. His loss of £33,000 on Jerry’s St. Leger is legendary, as also his more than recouping himself on the following Derby through the advice of the then reigning king of the ring. The present leviathan bookmakers in England do nob conclude such immense operations as of yore, but the sums they lose and win on a race merely by standing against the favorites, would open the eyes of many of those gentlemen who write knowingly about the principles by which a bookmaker is sure to win without having enough practical experience of their subject to know that such principles are impossible of application. It is a pity that an institution which, like bookmaking, has stood the test of public patronage for a century in England, and for nearly half that period in France, against all innovations, should so slowly make its way in the States. With a little more pluck in its practice the trade would be found a wonderfully good one, and then, when conducted on more large and liberal principles, it would find favor with the sporting public. “Nothing venture nothing win,” should be the bookmaker’s motto, as also that of old Crutch Robinson, “Never leave off laying against the favorites. ’ They should abandon the petty method of restricting the odds, so as to lay to a sure gain, expand the prices, attract custom, and bear the brunt of occasional loss, certain to come out largely ahead on the whole.— E. H. Delille, in the “ New York Spirit of the Times.”