bucket shop •
\BUK-ut-SHAHP\ • noun 1 : a gambling establishment that formerly used
market fluctuations (as in commodities) as a basis for gaming 2 : a dishonest
brokerage firm
Examples:
"Today …
the SEC is able to intervene more quickly to shut down frauds, like boiler
rooms or bucket shops pushing bogus stocks…." — The Orange County
Register, October 15, 2001
"As a result,
dozens of operations have sprouted up on the Caymans to supply directors, from
one-man bucket shops to powerhouse law firms." — Azam Ahmed, The New York
Times, July 2, 2012
Did you know? In the
1870s, a bucket shop was a lowly saloon that sold beer and other cheap hooch in
buckets. How did the term make the jump from watering hole to Wall Street? No
one is really sure. Some speculate that it may have been because of the
small-time gambling that took place at the original bucket shops, while others
claim it derives from the bucket elevator used to transport things between the
Chicago Board of Trade and a market for small investors housed directly below
it. By the 1880s, bucket shop was being used for pseudo "investment
houses" where gamblers bid on the rise and fall of stock prices. These
days the term is used for any business that sells cut-price goods, especially
airline tickets.
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