Editing Bookmaker (section)

==History==
The first bookmaker, Harry Ogden, stood at [[Newmarket Racecourse|Newmarket]] in 1795,<ref name="Barrett1995">{{Cite book |title=The Daily Telegraph Chronicle of Horse Racing |publisher=Guinness Publishing |year=1995 |editor-last=Barrett |editor-first=Norman |location=Enfield, Middlesex |page=10}}</ref> although similar activities had existed in other forms earlier in the eighteenth century.<ref>Munting, Roger (1996). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ByboAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA89 ''An Economic and Social History of Gambling in Britain and the USA'']. [[Manchester University Press]]. p. 89.</ref><ref>Vamplew, Wray; Kay, Joyce. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=QMFDJfYT2UEC&pg=PA50 ''Encyclopedia of British Horseracing'']. [[Routledge]]. p. 50.</ref>

Following the [[Gaming Act 1845]], the only gambling allowed in the United Kingdom was at race tracks. The introduction of special [[excursion trains]] meant that all classes of society could attend the new racecourses opening across the country. Runners working for bookmakers would collect bets in [[Clock bag|clock bags]]. Cash flowed to the bookmakers who employed bodyguards against protection gangs operating within the vast crowds.<ref name="DKTP">Dick Kirby, ''The Race Track Gangs'', The Peeler issue 7 July 2002, 'Friends of the Met Police Museum'</ref> Illegal betting shops were fined, but some, like [[Bella Thomasson]], ran betting businesses that the police appeared to turn a blind eye to.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=Thomason, Ann Arabella [known as Bella Thomasson] (1874–1959), bookmaker |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-56685 |year = 2004|language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/56685|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref>