Better Betting with a Decent Feller
Author | : Carl Chinn |
Publisher | : White Lion Publishing |
Total Pages | : 416 |
Release | : 2004 |
ISBN-10 | : PSU:000056002584 |
ISBN-13 | : |
Rating | : 4/5 (84 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Today, branches of chains such as William Hill and Ladbrokes are familiarights in high streets across Britain, and betting takes place on all sortsf events - from horse-racing to general elections, from football-matchesults to the likelihood of snow falling on Christmas Day. Yet until 1961treet bookmakers were illegal, and old prejudices are slow to fade away. Atigma is still attached to bookmaking, and for many people bookmakers remain disreputable and shady lot. This book sets out to examine why this is thease. Social historian Carl Chinn was himself a bookmaker, like his fathernd grandfather before him, and therefore brings his own unique perspectiveo this lively and highly readable account of the profession's history, fromts origins among the sharpsters who hoodwinked punters at racecourses, tohe illegal street bookies who offered the working class a tantalising escaperom poverty, to the growth of leisure empires such as Coral and William Hillost-legalisation, to gambling on the internet and betting on 'virtual' horseaces.