In Galaxy Quest, Saris has both eyes during their initial encounter, it isn’t till later that he sports an eyepatch.
Are you seriously asserting bookies don’t know that boxing is rigged? Bookies make bank either way. Payout a whole bunch of smaller bets or a few bigger bets, they make their money on the vig.
I hate the character. But he carries it because he has no sympathy with ghosts. We aren’t asking ourselves *Why is this guy putting Casper into jail?" He’s not doing it because he enjoys it: he just doesn’t care, and he carries us along with him.
I know. In order for Marcellus’s plan to make any money, he has to find people willing to bet against him. Who’s going to do that, considering Marcellus’s reputation? Is there a way to hide the fact that he’s the one betting, or does he go someplace like Las Vegas that gets so much action that they wouldn’t notice?
It’s even mentioned by Butch later that the word had gotten out that the fix was in. I suppose Butch bet against Marcellus, but if Marcellus had known that would happen he wouldn’t have fixed the fight.
I assumed that Marcellus was placing a large bet against Butch, maybe in Las Vegas or maybe as a direct bet with some other big shot that wanted to bet on Butch to win. That makes a lot more sense than his playing the bookmaker and trying to unbalance the action so that there was more bet against Butch than for Butch.
I didn’t think Marcellus had any money riding on the fight at all. He was doing a “favor” for some other connected bettor(s). They pay him to fix the fight, he leans on Butch. The bettors win, then pay Marcellus.
See also the English film Snatch (film) - Wikipedia from year 2000
There was an episode of the sitcom “Alice” starring Linda Lavin, “Bet A Million, Mel” in which her boss Mel was advised by his bookie that a perpetually losing nag of a racehorse was secretly a winner that was being held back to jack up the odds to 90-1. He (the bookie) claimed he was doing Mel a favor by letting him get in on the ground floor, even though Mel had to put up the deed of his diner against a $10,000 loan to make the “sure thing” bets. Appalled, Alice prevents Mel from doing so by tying him up and holding him prisoner until after the horse race. Well the race happens and the horse does actually come in first; but then is disqualified after it turned out it was doped up to the gills. So Alice saved Mel from losing his diner.
Although as far as I remember it was never said so explicitly, I always thought that the whole thing was a setup: the nag really WAS a nag, and that the whole plan was to trick a bunch of chumps into betting on it; the last-minute disqualification would look like bad luck, that the horse owners had just tried to buy a little insurance and overdone it.
That just shifts the problem from Marcellus to the people he’s doing the favor for. They have to find people willing to bet against them; enough so that they can pay Marcellus and Butch, and still have enough to be worth their while.
Maybe I’m wrong. I just saw something last weekend that was tangentially about fixing horse races, so things like this did happen. Marcellus just struck me as a guy who wouldn’t even get out of bed for less than 50-thou. Is there a way to fix a fight that’s worth his time, money, and effort, but also hidden enough that his victims don’t see it coming from a mile away?
I dunno about betting with a bookie but at the track if a horse is DQed for drugs it isn’t for hours or even the next day. While the payouts for the purse are adjusted, the bettors and their money are long gone.
A stewards’ inquiry or jockey objection is ruled on in minutes and thus, allows for the betting pool money to be properly paid out.
I know even less about horse racing than you do, but here bets are not paid until the race is declared. If drugging is suspected, the race is not declared until after the drug test.
Butch specifically mentions over the phone that there are several bookies involved. The actual line is “How many bookies did you lay it around on? All eight? How long to collect?”
Yes, but that was an accomplice acting on Butch’s behalf. Marcellus strikes me as a much higher roller, with a much higher profile. I think Butch even says that there was a rumor that the fight was fixed, which made his payouts higher (and Marcellus’s lower). All of those factors work against Marcellus. If Butch’s accomplice had to go to 8 bookies, how many more would Marcellus have had to go to?
I don’t think that Butch’s guy had to go to other guys. I think he did that to maximize his payoff. Plus, as a more legit citizen than Marcellus is, he probably had maximum bets he could place without triggering IRS scrutiny, since gambling winnings are taxable income.
I assumed that Butch’s accomplice placed the bets with illegal bookies, and I don’t think they would report the payouts to the IRS.
Do we know where the accomplice is? I think Butch says that the next time he sees him it will be in Tennessee.
That is simply not true in the US. The drug tests are urinalysis and take hours or even are not available until the next day. Can you imagine the logistics of 150,000 people attending the Kentucky Derby having to wait a day before they know whether their bet is good or not?
Drug tests are administered on the top three finishers and one or two other horses at random – whichever one urinates first. As I said, the results of a test can disqualify a horse and it will lose its purse money but there is no effect on the bet payouts.
When a race is complete all eyes are on the tote board. The numbers of the estimated top four finishers are displayed and an announcement made, “Please hold all tickets until the race is official.” Within a minute or two the board might light up INQUIRY, meaning one of the stewards spotted something that needs looking into, typically interference. If that doesn’t happen a couple minutes later after the jockeys’ post-race weigh-in it might light up OBJECTION, meaning one of the jockeys lodged a complaint; “That guy hit me with his whip!”
In this modern day and age monitors throughout the track display whatever patrol camera the stewards are looking at, running a few seconds back and forth or single-stepping the frames. After they have made their determination the board finally shows OFFICIAL. In the Results section of the board the positions are displayed and the payouts listed. After most races, perhaps two out of three, neither Inquiry or Objection are lit and the results made official. Once this happens people are free to cash in their tickets.
If even a half hour later an announcement made, “Attention. Horse number 5 in the third race, Gluepot, has tested positive for Synephrine. Please return all winnings,” you’d have a lot of non-compliance, if not a riot on your hands.
Here, is a race where the results were determined after an inquiry.
@DesertDog, did you intend to include a link?
Oops. I did. Here, the 2019 Ky. Derby after an objection.
Very interesting. Logical that the winning bets are long gone, but do the losing bets have any recourse the next day, after the DQ? If I bet on the second place horse to win (and kept my ticket), can I show up and demand my winnings?
No. The pool of money that payout would be coming from was mostly* distributed the day before. Once the race is official the payouts to bettors is fixed and immutable. Purse money – that paid to the owners of the horses – can be changed if an infraction is later discovered, e.g. the drug tests talked about above.
*A winning ticket does not have to be cashed right away or even that day. When I am at the track I will let three or four accumulate and cash them all in when I place the next bet or when I’m ready to leave. A winning ticket can be cashed in any subsequent day of racing of that meet. A meet is defined as a series of races – no track races year round.
Example: Once a year Belmont, Aqueduct, Saratoga, the NYRA, and the NY State Gaming Commission all get together to decide which track will race on which days. Typically they’ll come up with Belmont from May to mid-July, Saratoga from mid-July to Labor Day, and Aqueduct from November through April the year after.
If I go to Belmont on Preakness Day in early June and get a winning ticket I can return any day they are racing for the next month and a half and cash it in. Once the meet at Saratoga has started I am SOL.