The nation . of a bookies most pressingneeds; such are the rewards of theline. Loot of the Layoff The second of the three musts ina bookies life involves money ineven more fantastic is the loot of the layoff. Inex-tricably mixed up with the layoffis a not-inconsiderable item knownin the trade as vigorish. This isthe bookies guaranteed edge. Onhorse racing, for example, the pay-out is determined by the odds quot-ed on the pari-mutuel machines atthe tracks. But, as the Massachusettscommission pointed out, the tracksalways take a percentage off thetop to pay taxes to the state an
The nation . of a bookies most pressingneeds; such are the rewards of theline. Loot of the Layoff The second of the three musts ina bookies life involves money ineven more fantastic is the loot of the layoff. Inex-tricably mixed up with the layoffis a not-inconsiderable item knownin the trade as vigorish. This isthe bookies guaranteed edge. Onhorse racing, for example, the pay-out is determined by the odds quot-ed on the pari-mutuel machines atthe tracks. But, as the Massachusettscommission pointed out, the tracksalways take a percentage off thetop to pay taxes to the state andthe costs of running the racingplants. In Massachusetts, this take-out averages 15 /4 per cent beforethe pari-mutuel odds are figured. Inillegal betting this 15/4 per cent goesto the bookie, who has no race trackto maintain, no pari-mutuel tax topay, nothing to worry about — ex-cept, of course, protection. This same item of vigorish dipsits grasping hand into every type ofbetting. Take a look, for example,. iSS&>~C< 267 at what happens on a heavyweightchampionship prize fight — an eventthat, despite the general opprobriumin which the sport is held, does lureheavy betting. In last summers re-turn battle between Ingemar Johans-son and Floyd Patterson, the earlyodds were 6-5, pick em. Thismeans that, if you liked Patterson,you had to wager $6 on the chanceof winning #5; similarly, if youliked Johansson, you had to put up#6 to win $5. A bookie having thesame amount of money bet on eachfighter was rolling in clover. Ob-viously, only one man could win,and it was a matter of complete in-difference to the bookie who it , with neatly balanced books, hewould pay out only $11 of each #12he took in — a clear $1 margin ofprofit on every twelve. Clearly, with vigorish going sovigorously for him, the only timedisaster can overtake a bookie, asidefrom the unlikely hazards of the law,comes if he allows himself to beoverloaded on one betting proposi-tion — one horse, one fi
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