The bucket shop proprietor is ready to make all deals offered in any
commodity that fluctuates in price. He may call himself banker and
broker, or commission merchant, or disguise his business under the
form of an incorporated enterprise or exchange. But he is still a
common gambler. The interest of the proprietor of a bucket shop is at
all times opposed to that of his patrons, as the profits of the shop
are measured by the losses of the patrons.
Bucket shops should not be confounded with the great public markets
of the world, where buyer and seller, producer and consumer, investor
and speculator meet in legitimate trade; for the pretended buying of
millions of bushels of grain in bucket shops will not add a fraction
of a cent to the price of the product of the farm, nor will the
pretended selling of as much increase the supplies of the consumer or
lessen the cost of his loaf a farthing. Nor should they be confounded
with the offices of legitimate brokers which they endeavor to imitate
in appearance.