a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) ii. i. 98 You'l pay me the eight shillings I won of you at Betting [1600 beating] ? View more context for this quotation

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 548 Gambling and betting were his amusements.

1858 T. P. Thompson Audi Alteram Partem (1859) II. lxxx. 38 It is not hiding the head as is the wont of the ostrich and the turkey, that will change the betting.

1901 C. Richardson Eng. Turf i. 2 In the North-country towns, too, a single sheet is everywhere on sale shortly before noon, filled with telegrams from the course,..and the little regarded ‘latest betting’, which is an epitome of the prices offered on the day's races.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvi. [Eumaeus] 602 Bettings 5 to 4 on Zinfandel, 20 to 1 Throwaway (off).

1939 P. R. Chalmers Racing England vi. 88 Not to be mentioned in the betting has never yet stopped a horse from winning.

1813 Sporting Mag. 42 141/1 By a recent exposition of his betting-book at Tattersall's, it appeared that he lost 1200 guineas.

1836 R. S. Surtees Let. in A. Mathews Mem. C. Mathews (1839) IV. 194 As soon as ever he got to town he would advertise for a man that could keep a betting-book.

1855 F. P. Cobbe Ess. Intuitive Morals I. 154 Making up their lives as sagaciously as a black-leg does his betting book.

1853 Act 16 & 17 Victoria c. 119 (title) An Act for the Suppression of Betting Houses.

1819 Sporting Mag. 5 3/2 The betting men have all agreed to pay and receive accordingly.

1825 P. Egan Life of Actor iv. 140 Sir Henry was..not..acknowledged as a betting man in the sporting circles.

1864 Soc. Sc. Rev. 386 If he be a betting-man the race-course..calls him into the open air.

1939 A. Christie Ten Little Niggers xi. 162 I'm not a betting man. And anyway if you were dead I wouldn't get paid.

1852 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 18 57/1 ‘Commission Office’, ‘Racing Bank’,..‘Betting-Office’, are the styles of announcement adopted by speculators who open what low people call Betting-shops.

1951 Royal Commission on Betting, Lotteries & Gaming 1949–51 Rep. (Cmd. 8190) 65 We were told by one police witness that the licensing of betting offices would merely be regularising what is a fact in his city.

1961 Economist 6 May 565/1 Nobody has any real idea of how many bookmakers in Britain have taken advantage of the new Betting and Gaming Act..to open betting shops—or..Licensed Betting Offices.

1771 P. Parsons Newmarket II. 148 Let us walk a little about the betting-post.

1822 Sporting Mag. 10 4/1 He was well known in the betting ring.

1954 W. Faulkner Fable 57 A hard-faced jockey-sized man who seemed to have brought on his warped legs..something of hard, light, razor-edge horses and betting-rings.

1793 Sporting Mag. 2 124/1 In the betting-room, at Tattersall's the horse was so little thought of, that he had never been mentioned.

1857 C. Dickens & W. Collins in Househ. Words 31 Oct. 410/1 A complete choke and stoppage of the thoroughfare outside the Betting Rooms.

1961 Daily Tel. 2 May 13/5 The Betting and Gaming Act came into force yesterday, but..betting shops are not easy to find.

1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 37 Betting agents or touts are often had up before the courts for passing betting-slips in the streets to would-be backers.

1959 J. Braine Vodi xxv. 264 The action was surreptitiously executed, as if he were passing a betting-slip in the street.

1521 Item payd for viijli. of pyche for the bettyngs to the Cressets, viijd.