breakage
n.— «Breakage is even more insidious. Breakage is the downward rounding of the odds on the tote board, and consequently the amount paid on winning bets. A horse who may be 5.8-1 will be rounded down to 5-1, a significant reduction. There is no way to tell ahead of time how breakage will affect your bet, but it is more pronounced for favorites than longshots and over time will take another percent or so from your winning bets.» —“An Allegory” by Kevin Depew Minyanville (New York City) May 4, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to the Tooth Fairy, tucked into a book decades ago. What stories are left untold by these forgotten...