Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a gambler, on cards, dice, horses, dogs etc.

1706		E. Phillips New World of Words (6th edn) n.p.: Punter, a Term us’d at the Game of Cards call’d Basset.
1714		T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 240: Punter, a Term for every one of the Gamesters that play.
1794		Sporting Mag. Mar. III 321/1: Ponte, French. Punter, English, from punto, Italian for a point. The player at Faro [...] is called so from punting, or staking his money on the number of points a card contains.
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 213: The more experienced, but still equally weak brethren punters (players) of the metropolis, very rarely detect the black-leg trick.
1832		Satirist (London) 22 Apr. 135/2: Wine you drink and horses keep / [...] /While punters‡ pay the piper [...] ‡ Players at different games so called.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair III 263: She was at home with everybody in the place, pedlars, punters, tumblers, students and all.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 4 July 4/4: [T]here is no more integrity among ‘punters’ than compassion in a hungry tiger.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 175: The poor little ‘punters’ one sees at Hombourg and Baden-Baden – men with ‘systems’ [...] who would have always won fifty thousand florins to a dead certainty.
1873		Sl. Dict. 262: Punter a small professional backer of horses.
1884		Sporting Times 1 Nov. 2/5: I’m a backer — nicknamed punter — and of fortune I’m a hunter.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Oct. 14/1: In spite of the well-known fact that early two-year-old form is more reliable than any other, punters generally let Lady Betty alone for the Nursery Handicap on Saturday.
1893		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 9 Nov. 4/1: [T]he following thoroughly trained ‘bow-wows’ are open to engagements for the winter season in the plains [...] Ill—Dark Hebrew Bow-wow ‘Plantaganet’, by ‘Moses’ out of ‘Delilah’ by ‘Uncle’ out of ‘Aunt,’ a good punter, very clever and fast, full of blood and fashion.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 19 Aug. 6/3: Quite a little army of silver punters seem to be under the impression that ‘Maori’ still carries on business.
1896		M. Williams Round London 139: The hard part of the case is that the punter has not brought his misfortune upon himself.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Dec. 1/7: The word 'punter' was originally applied to one who played against the banker or dealer, as in baccarat .
1905		Sporting Times 25 Mar. 1/5: ‘A Punter——Holloway!’ Punts with the warders, in dumplings, we suppose?
1905		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 26 Mar. 5/1: Hardy Downing [...] translates the Australian slang in the above as follows: ‘Ikeys’ are bookmakers; a ‘punter’ is a small better; ‘magging’ is eqivalent to the term ‘kidding’.
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Done for the Double’ in Three Elephant Power 136: Among the throng the heaviest punter is a fat lady with diamond earrings.
1929		C.G. Gordon Crooks of the Und. 68: One wide-awake punter [...] realised I was knocking, he gave the alarm.
1936		R. Chandler ‘Guns At Cyrano’s’ in Red Wind (1946) 211: Maybe it’s some Spring Street punter’s idea of how to make himself a little easy dough.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 3: Usually a few punters went across to the Grand for a drink after each race.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: An’ you find some punters, or we’ve ’ad it.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 23: He really could [...] stick a fork (he did this once) into the hand of a moody punter at a chemmy game.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 165: He was a heavy punter – always showing off with his money and talking about his connections.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 9: The club was locked up [...] and the punters had drfited away.
1989		S. Armitage ‘The Stuff’ in Zoom 68: One punter surfaced in the ship-canal / having shed a pair of concrete-slippers.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] [T]he gawking five-dollar punters, pensioners and loudmouths.
1994		Indep. Mag. 6 Aug. 18: Danny’s a big punter.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 57: It seems Mike Alexander is still a keen punter.

2. (Aus.) a small-time, cautious gambler.

1900–10

Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 118: PUNTER: betting slang a small cautious better [...] In contradistinction to a ‘plunger’.

3. (N.Z.) a pickpocket’s assistant.

1941		Baker N.Z. Sl.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 164: punter A pickpocket’s assistant with the job of distracting the target.

4. the victim of a confidence trickster’s schemes.

1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 187: But when the grafter decides that it is time for him to get the punter’s money, he leans casually against the stall. [Ibid.] 320: Punter, a grafter’s customer, client or victim.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 21: The real morries [...] flying dodgy kites with each other at bent spielers till the punter [...] outs his kiting-book too and scribbles a straight one.
1974		G.F. Newman Price viii 253: They were three card tricksters. Their patter never changed, but still punters stood for it.

5. a generic term for a member of the general public, particularly when in the role of customer, esp. of a prostitute, a casino and other slightly ‘shady’ enterprises.

1935		X. Petulengro Romany Life 203: They were fairly good ‘punters’ for my pills.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 65: The professional tarts [...] rarely pay for a drink and some club proprietors encourage them to bring in their ‘punters’ or clients.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 102: Mad punters, they were, that’s when they had any money.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 15: There had been rumours that Manso in his time had put money into that judge for various favours. While a lot of punters would doubt the corruptibility of a judge [...] Sneed knew just how well-founded those rumours were.
1984		Flame: a Life on the Game 80: That was part of the psychology. When the punters get there, they find it’s nicer than they had imagined.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 38: [They] joked with some of the punters who were starting to arrive [i.e. at a nightclub].
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘Politics of Pot’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] I’ll give you an idea of how an ordinary worker, a punter, can go down for a long stretch.
1998		Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 28: The diverse range of punters who bought that massive international hit.
2000		Guardian 27 Jan. 19: They have insulted the punters, the ordinary gay people who bought their tickets and simply wanted a day out without being abused.
2012		L. Redhead ‘Grassed’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] The Sydney punters couldn’t get enough of [...] the dakka.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 104: ‘It’s not as if Mr Punter Man’s bothered whether I enjoy it. And he can’t be a nasty, angry prick to his girlfriend so he hires a woman to pound his cock into instead’.
2017		A. Parks Bloody January 11: ‘Atmosphere’ she called it. ‘Punters like it, younger ones anyway’.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 123: The wharf was crowded with punters.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 61: ‘If she was a working girl, maybe she went with a punter in a car?’.

6. (Scot. gang) a gang member.

1973

(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 235: Punter – a gang member.