What does to pick chalk mean in gambling?

Answer 1

'Picking chalk' or 'betting chalk' means to bet the favorites. Using the 2008 March Madness as an example, if you bet chalk you were a big winner because all four #1 seeds made it to the Final Four.

Favorites generally pay the least though.

A "chalk bettor" is most often used to describe someone new to betting or desperate for any sort of money return (someone who's lost a lot that day and wants to make a somewhat safe bet), especially in horse racing.

"Chalk bettors" pick favorites and feel they will win the most often but they win the least money because the payouts are so small due to the close odds (5:2, 1:1, 7:5 etc).

In such cases, the second and third place horses often pay more to come in second or third than the winning horse pays to win. An experienced bettor or someone who doesn't mind taking a bigger chance, stands to win a lot more.

"The chalk horse" goes back to when the trackside odds were shown on a chalkboard. A favorite horse was bet so often it would be erased over and over again as the odds changed, resulting in:

A: a lot of chalk used

B: hard to read names due to the number of times the numbers were quickly erased, leaving chalk all over that horses line on the board.