Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an absconder, esp. one who runs off after placing a losing bet.

1598		in Florio Worlde of Wordes n.p.:
1781		G. Parker View of Society II 168: Levanters. These are of the order and number of Black-Legs, who live by the Broads and the Turf.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 296: The Levanter is a Black-leg, who lives by the broads and the turf and is accustomed to work as it were by telegraph with his pal; and if you take the broads in hand in their company, you are sure to be work’d, either by glazing, that is, putting you in the front of a looking-glass, by which means your hand is discovered by your antagonist, or by private signals from the pal. On the turf he will pick up some nobleman or gentleman, who he knows is not up to the rig — bet him fifty or a hundred on a horse — pull out his pocket-book — set down the name, and promise to be at the stand when the race is over; but takes care to be seen no more, unless he is the winner, which he easily ascertains by the direction his pal takes immediately on the arrival of the horses.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 167: The system of booking bets to a great amount, and frequently, when ascertained too late – against nothing! is the principle cause of the great danger occasioned by the Levanters.
1838		R.S. Surtees Jorrocks Jaunts (1874) 172: No end of broken-down sportsmen, levanters, and gentlemen who live on the interest of what they owe other people.
1849		Paul Pry 16 Apr. 4/1: Levanters In Little. J—S H. E—s, late of the Fox and Peacock, Gray’s inn lane, has never paid the money for Surplice for last year's Derby.
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Oct. 62/2: Some are gone to jail, / And one or two levanters to the diggings.
1858		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 June 2/7: [heading] A Turf Levanter.
1850		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 23 June 4/4: No end of legs and levanters.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 88: There are a good many fellows there that he knows [...] legs, levanters and lame ducks of all sorts.
1862		Dundee Courier 26 Nov. 4/2: It may be that ‘levanting’ is scarcely a proper term for the flight of a trull and her paramour [...] The levanter or transatlanticator had a slang name, ‘Skittles’.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 5: Levanter - A card-sharper or defaulting gambler.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 11 Mar. 4/5: The cabby was to take to ‘Gulf od venice’, / To get Clark out of reach of penal menace. / [...] / Sing, hey! the gay levanter and the cab.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Oct. 1/1: An expedition to see ‘The Girl from Kay’s’ finished in a fiasco [and] the levanters were lassooed and sentenced to bread and water.