The betting combinations are so arranged, according to experts, that the one sucker is pitted against his brother and not against the house.
The placement of money on horse flesh is so arranged that no matter how the horses run, a profit of at least ten per cent accrues to the bookmaker. He is never the big loser. In cold cash that means $30,000 a day to the handbook men of the city.
Few of the races or the racing tips are “on the square.” The sucker plays and attempts to defeat a system which is nothing more than one crooked scheme within another.
Fifty per cent of that is needed by the handbook men to operate their places. It is used in the payment of salaries to hirelings, wire service, rent, telephone service, printing and miscellaneous financial obligations.
The balance or $15,000 is split between two mighty factors. Seven thousand five hundred dollars are kept by the poolroom combination and an equal sum is paid, through members of the police force, or other collectors, as protection money to the great powers of the Vice Trust.
THE POLICE PROFIT.
The local police for their vigilance in steering reformers from the door of the gambling holes, carrying on fake raids and helping the sucker to forget the loss of his bankroll by rubbing his injured pocketbook with the salve of warning to keep away and learn a lesson, must be given their share. Then the “big fellows” who in the department are the spokesmen for the Vice combine must dig out their share. Then the remainder,—a large remainder,—must go back to the Directorate of Ten.
Stop and think how swollen and bloated this figure becomes when considered from the standpoint of an annuity.
Two million six hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars are paid each year to the Vice Trust and the big political lords for the right to rob the general public, prey upon its tempting instinct to dare a chance, and drive the individual to ruin, starvation and death.
That same amount of money is split up yearly between the handbook combination and the agents throughout the city.