bucket shop Definition

bucket shop
noun

(especially Brit)
1. rather derog, colloq
A travel agent that sells cheap airline tickets, normally at the expense of the usual standards of reliability and insurance, etc.
(chiefly US)
2a. An office where a person may deal in shares, gamble on the money market, etc;
(chiefly US)
2b. A firm of stockbrokers with questionable or dishonest methods of dealing.

Etymology: 19c; originally US, meaning ‘a shop or bar selling alcoholic drink from open buckets', the drink therefore being of questionable origin.