Interesting parallels between this story and the prologue of the excellent book Fortune's Formula. In the early 1900's a former Western Union employee became ri

Interesting parallels between this story and the prologue of the excellent book Fortune's Formula. In the early 1900's a former Western Union employee became rich by setting up a wire service for bookies. He hired men to watch the horse races and flash the winner in code to a nearby building using a mirror . Someone in that building would wire the results to bookies who paid for the service. This prevented bookies from taking bets on completed races. Of course if someone tried to bet on a losing horse, the bookies would take that bet anyway.