Early Bookmaking

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie

100/1 on a five horse parlay?

They should have been tarred and feathered by the betting public.

It is pretty funny.

A lot of cool stories about new bookmakers from around the time of the early 1900's - especially in the Mid West and Far West.

They talked about how guys who were actually sharp handicappers from that region got into bookmaking - but were clueless on the ins and outs of it.

In a couple of cases - these bookmakers opened horses at odds as high as 40/1 - that twenty minutes later - would go off favored in the race.

In an overall climate like that - it would seem easy as hell to make a lot of money betting.