Clock bag
Bag used in bookmaking
A clock bag (or bookmaker's satchel) is a bag used in bookmaking with a lock and a built-in clock, 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 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.
The public source identifies “Clock bag” as bag used in bookmaking. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Clock, used and bookmaking.
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This entry incorporates text from “Clock bag” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.