Clock bag explained

A clock bag 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.^{[1] [2] [3]} The bets, or "lines", inside would often be "rolled in bundles each marked by a pseudonym".^[4]

Clock bags were in regular use in illegal gambling starting during the 1920s.^[5] 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".^[1]

It has been speculated that clock bags may have originated around pigeon racing.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Huggins . Mike . Horseracing and the British, 1919-39: Off-Course Betting, Bookmaking, and the British . 2003 . . . 0719065283 . 79.
2. Book: Dudgeon . Piers . Our Liverpool: Memories of Life in Disappearing Britain . 2012 . Headline . 9780755364442.
3. News: Wood . Greg . Paley . Tony . Talking Horses . 2 August 2023 . . 4 January 2012 . I know this book to be very readable because my brother bought it for my Dad for Christmas and he's already given me a lecture about what a clock bag is and how it worked..
4. Criminal Law and Practice in Scotland: Betting - Cash or Credit? . The Police Journal . 1939 . 12 . 4 . 391399 . 10.1177/0032258X3901200402.
5. Book: Clapson . Mark . Mark Clapson . A Bit of a Flutter: Popular Gambling and English Society, c. 1823-1961 . 1992 . Manchester University Press . Manchester . 0719034361.