Late betting or past posting is making a

bet Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

after the time when no more bets are to be taken. It is considered

cheating Cheating generally describes various actions designed to subvert or disobey rules in order to obtain unfair advantages without being noticed. This includes acts of bribery, cronyism and nepotism in any situation where individuals are given pr ...

; information may have become available, including the outcome of the event, that was not available to those making earlier bets. The term ''past posting'' originates from

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

where a

bugle The bugle is a simple signaling brass instrument with a wide conical bore. It normally has no valves or other pitch-altering devices, and is thus limited to its natural harmonic notes, and pitch is controlled entirely by varying the air a ...

r sounds a " call to the post" just before the race begins ("post time"). This is also the signal that no more bets can be taken. Any bets made after that time occur after or ''past'' "the post". In other forms of gambling, the

dealer Dealer may refer to: Film and TV * ''Dealers'' (film), a 1989 British film * ''Dealers'' (TV series), a reality television series where five art and antique dealers bid on items * ''The Dealer'' (film), filmed in 2008 and released in 2010 * ...

may announce "No more bets" or wave their hand over the table in a specific manner. In

roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...

, for example, past posting refers to placing a bet after the ball lands in a pocket. The player has to distract the croupier's attention to either move the bet to or place a bet on the winning number. Past posters in roulette games play in teams. According to most cheating strategies, the player who succeeded in placing a past-posting bet and did not get caught is to make a few more bets (now legal) and leave the table. Past posting was more feasible in the days before live television or radio broadcasts of sporting events. A famous example described by magician, gaming and gambling authority

John Scarne John Scarne (; March 4, 1903 – July 7, 1985) was an American magician and author who was particularly adept at playing card manipulation. He became known as an expert on cards and other games, and authored a number of popular books on cards, ...

was the "Blondie five young blonde women who cheated bookmakers in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

area out of at least $1 million during the 1940s. Bookmakers would allow their big customers to gamble in a sealed-off, soundproofed room, where communication with the outside world was in theory impossible, except by the bookmaker's telephone. Bets were accepted until the time the bookmaker was informed of the result (i.e., until a few minutes ''after'' the race had been completed). The scam was achieved by having a confederate with access to newswire services telephone in a smaller bet on an unrelated race and asking the bookmaker to repeat the details of the bet for confirmation. The details, repeated by the bookmaker, contained coded information indicating the winner of the just-completed race. The 1973 film ''

The Sting ''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film. Set in 1936, it involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw). The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had dir ...

'' features this technique as the basis of a successful con in 1936 played on character

Doyle Lonnegan ''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film. Set in 1936, it involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw). The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had direc ...

(actor Robert Shaw) in which

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...

wire transmissions were used before they were made public to place bets on races which had actually finished a few minutes earlier. In addition, ''

Came a Hot Friday ''Came a Hot Friday'' is a 1985 New Zealand comedy film, based on the 1964 novel by Ronald Hugh Morrieson. Directed and co-written by Ian Mune, it became one of the most successful local films released in New Zealand in the 1980s. The film's c ...

'', set in 1949 and starring

Peter Bland Peter Bland (born 12 May 1934 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire) is a British-New Zealand poet and actor. Life He emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 20 and graduated from the Victoria University of Wellington. He worked as a radio producer f ...

, showed a less elaborate practice of past posting, but in this case, the ruse went wrong. In

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's ''Ulysses'' (published 1922, set in 1904),

Leopold Bloom Leopold Paula Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in Homer's ...

muses on the possibility of establishing a private

wireless telegraph Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is the transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimental technologies fo ...

that would give him the race results from Britain faster than the standard telegram service, allowing him to make ''post factum'' bets. A variant of this is "pinching", where the bet is not moved, but its amount is changed after the result. After a losing bet, the player removes chips from a stack through sleight-of-hand to reduce losses. The player may also plant high-value chips underneath one or more low-value chips visible on top, further reducing the payment for lost rounds. However, a bet found with high-value chips underneath low-value chips may be seen as suspicious. In either case, the top chip remains unchanged giving the same outward appearance of the bet, and will not be altered if the bet wins. This would be less practical to repeat over and over on the more long-shot bets like straight-up, whereas the even-payout bets on average would only require close to one pinched loss for every unpinched win. Pinching may be done on many casino games, and in the case of card games, a skilled cheater may use cards to both snatch a chip out of the stack and conceal it as it is slid back to the player's pile. This method not only allows the cheater to stealthily increase their winnings by removing bets after the outcome is known, but also to cleverly hide their actions by blending them with legitimate gameplay, making detection by casino personnel challenging. Another variant of cheating at a casino game is known as "bet capping." In this case, once the outcome of the game is known, the player then adds more chips to his winning bet. This increases the amount of the win, even though the player did not make a high original bet.

References

{{reflist Gambling terminology Cheating in gambling

See also

References