The practice of “past posting”

 At one time, there were three major wire services in the US. Official results of horse races are telegraphed throughout the country. Western Union was heavily regulated by law, but Continental Wire (run by a guy named Ragan in Chicago) and Trans America Wire Service (owned by Al Capone but actually run by Bugsy Segal in Las Vegas) were the wires of choice for bookmakers. Segals job was to get bookies to drop Continental and subscribe to Trans America and he was very successful at it by using many “offers they couldn’t refuse”. In so doing, he controlled the wire to almost all bookies in the country from Las Vegas. With that in mind, consider the fact that occasionally the official results of a horse race are delayed for several minutes, for example a photo finish or an objection by a jockey. This delay allows certain unscrupulous bettors with inside information to take advantage of bookmakers by doing something called "past posting" ie: getting the unofficial results of the race and placing a bet with a bookie before the bookmakers get the official finish. What you’re doing is betting on a sure thing. Anybody who controlled the wire controlled the results of all horse races in which the official results were delayed. A perfect example of how this works (or backfires) was shown in the movie “The Sting” starring Paul Newman. Segal made a fortune by controlling the wire from Las Vegas and occasionally manipulating it.