Australians, so it's rumoured, will bet on anything with the right number of legs, which is generally four. Each year, on the first Tuesday in November, the entire country grinds to a halt for the duration of the Melbourne Cup, the most prestigious horse race in the country. So perhaps it's not surprising that the man who transformed betting around the world came from Australia. What is surprising is that he was an archbishop's son who had never been to a racetrack in his life. When he began work on his machine, he had something entirely different in mind.
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