A clock bag is a bag used in

bookmaking A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds. History The first bookmaker, Harry Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795, although similar a ...

with a

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

and a built-in

clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...

, intended to prevent fraud by proving the bets inside had been placed before a sporting event had started. The bets, or "lines", inside would often be "rolled in bundles each marked by a pseudonym". Clock bags were in regular use in illegal gambling starting during the 1920s. In

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

during the 1930s, runners would collect bets in clock bags and then telephone bookmakers for the outcomes. This was a common practice called "shovel betting". It has been speculated that clock bags may have originated around

pigeon racing Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specialized, trained homing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance. The time it takes the animal to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird's rate of t ...

References

{{gambling-stub Gambling terminology Gambling in the United Kingdom