The last of the bookmaking lone rangers tells his story, by Rolf Johnson

Stephen Little

Can a bookmaker be a gentleman or, to put it another way, can a gentleman be a bookmaker? Either way the questions are redundant. Faceless corporates and the ‘machine’ – betting exchanges – hold sway. Those of us of an age can decide for ourselves whether the likes of William Hill, Cyril Stein (Ladbrokes), Joe Coral, Victor Chandler, John Banks et al were gentlemen. “Courtesy, civility and integrity” graced Hill’s rails boards; “Never a qua...