ABSTRACT
The major characteristics of this new kind of betting were the appearance of professional bookmakers who were willing to take bets, for as little as sixpence or one shilling, from all comers, and the fact that on-course betting was only a tiny fraction of the total. Most of those who bet probably never witnessed a race; they followed the sport in the racing newspapers which became an important feature of Victorian popular culture. The press was supplemented by an army of racing tipsters who offered to sell inside information. Both racing and betting were aided by the expansion of communications and transportation. Betting on horse racing (in contrast to the eighteenth-century mass betting on lotteries, in which the winners were determined by chance) stresses rational calculation of the chances of each horse, and thus particularly suited the Victorian spirit.
