The Colour of Money

The Colour of Money is a term that is used in betting almost as often as questions like: ‘Call himself a jockey?’ and ‘Is the linesman blind, or what?’ However, the colour of money term has nothing to do with poor skill or judgement. On the contrary, when the colour of money term is used it is most often to invite someone to back their own judgement with a wager.

We’ll illustrate this with an example. If you were sitting in a betting shop with a few sports betting friends and one of them made a particularly confident statement such as ‘I bet you anything they’ll never be able to stay in the league after that’, you could say, ‘Show me the colour of your money and I’ll take that bet.’

In order words, you’re using the colour of money phrase to turn his hypothetical bet into a real one. Of course, before you do this you should really think long and hard about whether betting on an opposing point of view is likely to be profitable.

Another use of the colour of money term is to ask for verification that someone has enough cash on them to cover a bet they have offered to make. So, if there are two flies crawling down the wall of a betting shop (it happens far too often, which is why we prefer to bet with online sportsbooks and play other games at online casinos) and your friend offers to bet you £5 on the fly on the left taking off before the fly on the right, you might say ‘Let’s see the colour of your money and you’re on’. In other words, if he has the fiver you’ll agree to the bet. (Not that you would, obviously!)

The Colour of Money was also the title of a very good novel by Walter Tevis – so good that Paul Newman and Tom Cruise starred in the movie version of the same name.

We mention all of this because The Colour of Money name has now been hijacked for use as the title of an ITV game show presented by Chris Tarrant. The show give contestants the chance to win big money by establishing a target and then keeping their nerve as they try and get money from a series of cash machines. It’s tricky to describe but a bit of a cross between Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Strike it Lucky.

No doubt the world and his wife will eventually associate the colour of money with this game show, but we wanted the term to retain some of its original betting purity, hence this article. As for the game show itself, well... we’ll stick with the film version, thanks.

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