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]
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.