Each week during the soccer season, millions of Britons take pen in hand to calculate which games, of some several dozen each Saturday, are most likely to end in ties. The sacred ritual can keep a devotee busy all week with form sheets and result charts, and some are known to resort to the sliderule, the abacus or even tea leaves. For a bet in the football pools is matched only by the Irish Sweepstakes as the gambling world's biggest play, bringing a lucky winner tax-free riches well worth a lifetime of concentrated, calculating devotion. A 43-man syndicate won...
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