Or if on a certain day the customer takes advantage of a rise in the
commodity bet upon, and insists upon closing out the deal, it is most
frequently settled by the bucket shop upon the lowest figure for the
day. Occasionally, indeed, where a bucket shop keeper has allowed one
or more customers to "win" a considerable figure from it through some
untoward turn in figures, the whole shop closes up and disappears,
leaving the victims no redress at law for the reason that they have
left the money voluntarily in the hands of the sharpers. Occasionally
the country branch office of one of these central bucket shops may
clean out a town of its currency until the scarcity of money in the
place may demoralize the every-day business of the town.
That the man who tries to beat the bucket shop has an impossible task
in front of him in investigating the $10 bet, the commonest in the
shop. The man with the bill steps up to the window and asks to buy ten
shares of American Sugar at $110 a share, paying 25 per cent out of
the $10 as commission. Then, counting that the bucket shop might be
as nearly straight as such an institution can be, remember that the
decline of Sugar three-quarters of a point will wipe out the bettor's
$10, while for him to win another $10, Sugar will have to advance to
$111.25. In short, the customer is betting against a proposition which
will lose him $10 if Sugar declines 75 cents, while to win $10 it must
advance $1.25, in either case the bucket shop holding his money and
taking 25 cents in tolls.