A History of Gambling ...

The Amateur Handicapper continues his way through the exotic and fascinating landscape of David G. Schwartz' Roll the Bones: A History of Gambling, focusing of late on horse racing in America.

Only because I'm a nerd when it comes to horses (and because I set myself the task/joy of reading one horse racing book in May for the past 15 years) was I able to detect what might be an error in Schwartz' meticulously researched and annotated book.

"The largest crowd every yet assembled in the nation (well over 50,000) gathered at the Union course in Queen's County, New York, on May 13, 1845, to see the North's champion, Fashion, lose to the pride of Tennessee, Peytona."

That rattled around in my brain for a bit until I remembered having read about the very same North v. South match series in The Great Match Race: When North Met South in America's First Sports Spectacle by John Eisenberg. And sure enough, Eisenberg claims that the very first of those matches -- between Eclipse (North) and Henry (South) was held in May of 1823 (also at the Union course) and drew more than 60,000 spectators.

The Amateur Handicapper doesn't mean to brag, but ...

In any case, what interests us most here is the handicapping and wagering aspects of the sport we love so much. About that, Schwartz confides: "Betting on horse racing changed dramatically after the Civil War. Initially, there were two types of wagering: one-on-one propositions and pool-selling or calcutta auctions."

A calcutta auction is the selling off of individual entrants in a competition (a horse race or the March Madness basketball tournament, say) to the highest bidder.

The first book-makers to provide odds for horse races, according to historian Roger Longrigg, did so in Philadelphia in 1866. But soon there were complaints about fixed races many states banned betting at the track. The outcome was predictable.

"Without trackside betting, racing attendance dropped off precipitously."

Another result of the ban was -- remember how successful Prohibition was? -- also predictable:

"Banning bookmaking at tracks hardly stopped gambling, however, and the closure of racetracks barely caused a hiccup in race betting."

We will have our daily wager, won't we?

And where did the gamblers go? Poolrooms, that's where. Remember the scene in The Sting (one of the greatest gambling/con movies of all time) when they set up shop in the basement of that Chicago building and the guy with the straw boater changing the odds, written in chalk, on a big board? The modern equivalent of the practice of betting from a remote location: simulcasting.

Of course, with the advent of television, we contemporary gamblers have an edge over the poolroom patrons of yesteryear. We can see with our own eyes the track condition or whether a horse looks good during the post parade. Not so in the late 1800s.

"As race time approached, betting increased frenetically, as bettors frantically sought to get an edge by trying to overhear some critical bit of news -- that the sky had clouded, a favorite was limping slightly, or a friend knew of a 'sure thing.'

"The electricity built as the betting closed the announcer declared that the horses were at the post, and as he narrated the race, the poolroom denizens lost themselves in a frenzy of hope."