The one thing absolutely necessary to the bucket shop are quotations, never from a legitimate board of trade, but through leased wires, or wire tappings, or from some other fake source. For the instant that the "quotations" cannot be written upon the blackboards the betting must cease. The bet of the customer is that before a certain grain drops off a point against him, it will advance a point or more in his favor, and the bucket shopper takes the bet, holding the stake himself. Frequently the bettor may realize that he has won a point, or two, or three, and may insist upon the bucket shop selling for him. Perhaps the victim lives at a distance from the shop and must write or wire his "broker." He wires for the "broker" to sell, and perhaps gets a message in reply to the effect that the market must go much better than that; that he refuses to sacrifice his patron's best interests in that way, and will hold on for the certain rise. In most cases this patron is immensely flattered, until within a few days the market is "off" again, wiping out not only his profits, but his original margins as well. HOW THE SUCKERS ARE SKINNED. Or if on a certain day the customer takes advantage of a rise in the commodity bet upon, and insists upon closing out the deal, it is most frequently settled by the bucket shop upon the lowest figure for the day. Occasionally, indeed, where a bucket shop keeper has allowed one or more customers to "win" a considerable figure from it through some untoward turn in figures, the whole shop closes up and disappears, leaving the victims no redress at law for the reason that they have left the money voluntarily in the hands of the sharpers. Occasionally the country branch office of one of these central bucket shops may clean out a town of its currency until the scarcity of money in the place may demoralize the every-day business of the town. That the man who tries to beat the bucket shop has an impossible task in front of him in investigating the $10 bet, the commonest in the shop. The man with the bill steps up to the window and asks to buy ten shares of American Sugar at $110 a share, paying 25 per cent out of the $10 as commission. Then, counting that the bucket shop might be as nearly straight as such an institution can be, remember that the decline of Sugar three-quarters of a point will wipe out the bettor's $10, while for him to win another $10, Sugar will have to advance to $111.25. In short, the customer is betting against a proposition which will lose him $10 if Sugar declines 75 cents, while to win $10 it must advance $1.25, in either case the bucket shop holding his money and taking 25 cents in tolls. OTHER "FAKES" "BOOST" THE GAME.