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: