Excerpt:
As a result of the Linden Tree caper, most bookies thereafter capped what they would pay off on longshots, often at 15-1. Later, as the race wire enveloped the nation, bookmakers were able to manage their risk through layoff rooms and coordinate their action and the odds they offered. In the 1970s when New York legalized the handbooks and created Off Track Betting parlors throughout the city, they created a system that instantly pooled the money bet at the OTB with the money bet at the track.
