handbooking
An American gambling term for accepting bets privately or off the books — specifically, taking wagers outside of a licensed bookmaking operation, often illegally.
Definitions
An American gambling term for accepting bets privately or off the books — specifically, taking wagers outside of a licensed bookmaking operation, often illegally. A "handbook" was a small betting operation run by hand, without official registration. Handbooking was especially common during the horse-racing era when street-corner bookies would scribble bets in notebooks. The word has a historical, slightly underground flavour that ties it firmly to American gambling culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
He got arrested for handbooking at the racetrack — taking bets without a license for years.
Comments
(US, gambling) betting.
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Semantically related
- handbook83%
(US, gambling) A place where illicit bets can be placed.
- bookable61%
(British, sports) Warranting a booking (a yellow card).
- handbook61%
A topically organized book of reference on a certain field of knowledge, regardless of size, but archetypally one to be kept readily at hand.
- gamebook59%
(UK) A written record of the game that has been shot in a certain area (date, hunter, species, etc.).