Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. one who bets in a gambling game.

1704

D’Urfey Hell beyond Hell 94: Th’ Assembly meets, and on the board, Scatters, like Jove, the dazling hoard; Salutes the Punts with Bows and Dops [OED].

2. a bet, lit. or fig.

1890		Sporting Times 5 Apr. 1/5: Grenfell once lent me a punt for nothin’.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Done for the Double’ in Three Elephant Power 131: Bill and he would go out together, and ‘have a punt’ on some of Bill’s ponies.
1925		N.Z. Truth 3 Oct. 13/3: That kept quite a number from having what they fully regarded as the ‘punt’ of the year.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 28: A chap’s got to have a bit of a punt. Yer might as well be dead as not take a chance now and then.
1958		J.E. Macdonnell Alarm – E-boats! 147: Bentley took what others might again have called a gamble, a punt, a chance. But for him it was a calculated risk, weighed so heavily on his side the odds against success were small.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 88: Nothin to it. Miteswell give it a punt. We’re both short a the readies.
1989		Sun. Herald Sun (Melbourne) 1 Oct. 40: One of his most famous punts was the publication of Spycatcher, which ‘made me very unpopular with Mrs Thatcher but that didn’t worry me for one moment’, he says with some satisfaction.
1994		Indep. Mag. 6 Aug. 20: All these elements help create what Parker calls ‘the buzz’, transforming the usual desultory punt into a palpable occasion.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 207: Stick your neck out, have a decent fucking punt.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 50: As summer stories go, these ones were worth a punt.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 71: Ted liked his punt on the gee-gees.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 6: My father’s mother [...] loved ‘a bit of a flutter’ or loved ‘a bit of a punt’.
2019		M. Herron Joe Country [ebook] ‘Just thought it was worth taking a punt’.

3. (Aus. a) bookmaker.

1985

R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 16: If he has a good win at the punt it’s nothing for him [...] to drop five hundred in your kick.

4. (Aus., also punt game) constr. with the, the world of horserace or greyhound betting.

1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 81: I’ll [...] make a few careful investments on the punt.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 3: It is, needless to say, too big an ask of any scribe or scholar of the punt to try pinpointing the inaugural horse race - or even the first organised race meeting [ibid.] 53: ‘And, since we all know women know nothing about the old punt game, they will all be sitting targets for some good oil’.