The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
bucket shop
NOUN:
1. A fraudulent brokerage operation in which orders to buy and sell are accepted but no executions take place. Instead, the operators expect to profit when customers close out their positions at a loss. 2. A business, such as a travel agency, that buys unsold tickets and resells them at a discount.
ETYMOLOGY:
From bucket shop, a saloon selling small amounts of liquor in buckets, from its resemblance to the forerunner of such brokerage operations, which dealt in small units of stocks and commodities.
