Horseracing [ Games & Sports ]
… results, racing odds, and mentions of those attending, often provided by local ‘correspondents’, simultaneously fostered betting and sociability. This helped the sport to become part of a new leisure industry. Specialist annual calendars … elite sociability, and wagering on the course offered great opportunities. Much wagering took place around a so-called ‘betting post’, with known acquaintances, offering and accepting odds and amounts staked, noting them in memorandum books, and settling them at a later time. But regular owners and gamblers wanted to increase the size of the betting market. Plebeian groups of working-class ‘blacklegs’, racecourse gamblers often with carefully practised external …
Elite | Gambling | Horseracing | Sports | Women
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