Name Coined in London.
The term "bucket shop," as now applied in the United States, was first used in the late '70s. It was coined in London fifty years ago, when it had absolutely no reference to any species of speculation or gambling. Beer swillers from the East Side (London) went from street to street with buckets, draining every keg they came across and picking up cast-off cigar butts. Arriving at a den they gathered for social amusement around a table and passed the bucket as a loving cup, each taking a "pull" as it came his way.
In the interval were smoking and rough jokes. The den came to be called a bucket shop. Later the term was applied, both in England and the United States, as a byword of reproach to small places where grain and stock deals were counterfeited.
Yet the bucket shop is a gambling den par excellence, with all the paraphernalia necessary for the deception of the unsuspecting. One may place a $10 bet in the bucket shop, pay a commission of 25 per cent to the "bucket shopper," who may so shuffle the "cards" that the bettor may have to lose, even after he has won. As an example: