Numbers game
Encyclopedia
Numbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket or Italian lottery, is an illegal lottery
played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States
, wherein a bettor
attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. The gambler
places his or her bet with a bookie
at a tavern, or other semi-private place that acts as a betting parlor. A runner
carries the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, called a numbers bank or policy bank. The name "policy" is from a similarity to cheap insurance, both seen as a gamble on the future.
lottery, in 1530. "Policy shops", where bettors choose numbers, were in the United States
prior to 1860. In 1875, a report of a select committee of the New York State Assembly
stated that "the lowest, meanest, worst form ... [that] gambling takes in the city of New York, is what is known as policy playing." The game was also popular in Italian
neighborhoods known as the "Italian lottery", and it was known in Cuban
communities as bolita
("little ball").
By the early 20th century, the game was associated with poor communities, and could be played for as little as $0.01. One of the game's attractions to low income and working class bettors was the ability to bet small amounts of money. Also, unlike state lotteries, bookies could extend credit
to the bettor. In addition, policy winners could avoid paying income tax
. Different policy banks would offer different rates, though a payoff of 600 to 1 was typical. Since the odds of winning were 1,000:1, the expected profit for racketeers was enormous.
, several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues." By 1931, there were several big time numbers operators, James Warner, Stephanie St. Clair
, Casper Holstein
, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, Wilfred Brandon, Jose Miro, Joseph Ison, Masjoe Ison and Simeon Francis. The game survived despite periodic police crackdowns.
The Italian lottery was operated, as a racket
for the American Mafia
, originally, in Italian-American neighborhoods such as Little Italy, Manhattan
and East Harlem by mobsters of the Morello crime family
. A young Joseph Bonanno
, future boss of the Bonanno crime family
, expanded the Italian lottery operation to all of Brooklyn
and invested the profits in many legitimate businesses. In the 1930s, Vito Genovese
, crime boss
of the Genovese crime family
, gained control over the Italian Lottery, allowing him to have ample money to invest in nightclubs in Greenwich Village
.
Dutch Schultz
is said to have rigged this system, thanks to an idea from Otto Berman
, by betting heavily on certain races to change the Win, Place and Show numbers that determine the winning lottery number. This allegedly added ten percent to the Mob take.
and Pennsylvania Lottery
, even use the names "Numbers" and "Daily Number", respectively. Despite the existence of legal alternatives, some gamblers still prefer to play with a bookie for a number of reasons. Among them are the ability to bet on credit, better payoffs, the convenience of calling in one's bet on the telephone, the ability to play if under the legal age, and the avoidance of government taxes.
. Initially, winning numbers were set by the daily outcome of a random drawing of numbered balls, or by spinning a "policy wheel", at the headquarters of the local numbers ring. The daily outcomes were publicized by being posted after the draw at the headquarters, and were often "fixed". The existence of rigged games, used to cheat players and drive competitors out of business, later led to the use of the last three numbers in the published daily balance of the United States Treasury. The use of a central independently chosen number allowed for gamblers from a larger area to engage in the same game and it made possible larger wins. When the Treasury began rounding off the balance many bookies began to use the "mutuel" number. This consisted of the last dollar digit of the daily total handle of the Win, Place and Show bets at a local race track
, read from top to bottom. For example, if the daily handle (takings at the racetrack) was:
then the daily number was 437.
By 1936, "The Bug" had spread to cities such as Atlanta where the winning number was determined by the last digit of that day's New York bond sales.
, which the bookie keeps to cover overhead and make a profit for himself. In the Norristown, PA area part-time sub-runners collected bets on both numbers and horses in their neighborhoods and workplaces (factories, retail stores, movie theaters, the local police station, the county courthouse, etc.). The sub-runners earned 5% for this service. The runner then earned 15% of the numbers bets he "picked up" on his route, which left 30% for the bookie. The bookie "laid off" excess bets to a better financed local banker so as to keep his daily risk manageable. The local banker in turn laid off to a higher level banker when his daily book became too unbalanced. The bookie also paid upward through the banker a daily tax on his volume. This tax went up the line to the organization (based in New Jersey
in the case of Norristown, PA in the 1950s) which defined and guaranteed his territory, and which also organized payments to politicians to reduce "heat" on the business. A measure of the effectiveness of this "protection" is that in the 1950s a runner in Norristown made daily stops at both the local police station and at the Montgomery County courthouse to pick up numbers and horse bets. In one case when the PA State Police were planning to do a raid on the business the first act they did after alerting the local police was to station a trooper at the police department switchboard to discourage warning from going out.
Force of Evil
revolves around the numbers racket, with the plot hinging upon the workings of policy banks. The film tells of a gangster who is trying to take over all the banks in New York City by rigging the mutual numbers to come up 776 on Independence Day
. Since everybody plays those numbers for the Fourth of July, the banks will go bankrupt filling the policies.
In Spike Lee
's film Malcolm X
, Denzel Washington
's main character acts as a numbers runner for a character named "West Indian Archie" in Harlem.
In the 1973 film The Sting
, the main character (played by Robert Redford
) spends most of the film evading assassins after he cons
a numbers runner out of several thousand dollars worth of racket money belonging to a powerful mob boss (portrayed by Robert Shaw
).
Mobster Dutch Schultz
's attempts to take control of the New York numbers rackets have been portrayed in two separate films: 1991's Billy Bathgate
, about a young boy (Loren Dean
) to whom Schultz (Dustin Hoffman
) takes a liking, and who witnesses the gangster's decline and fall, and 1997's Hoodlum, which purports to tell the story of the mob war between Schultz (Tim Roth
) and black gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne
) over control of the Harlem
numbers racket. Both films were heavily fictionalized.
In an episode of Sanford and Son
, Fred plans to bet on the "numbers" after he has a dream about having the winning number. His son Lamont is against his plan, but Fred bets $1 anyway and wins $600.
In the boardgame Illuminati: Crime Lords (Steve Jackson Games) you can own Numbers game enterprises for different districts of a city, along with other criminal rackets.
In the film The Godfather
, Sonny and members of the Corleone family discuss the fact that black gangs have taken over their "policy banks" due to the turmoil caused by the gang wars between the Corleones and other New York Mafia families.
Lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, wherein a bettor
Bettor
A Bettor is a person who makes bets based on particular information, or feeling, on sporting or other events in the hope of gaining financial profit.-Low Vs. High-stake bettors:...
attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. The gambler
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
places his or her bet with a bookie
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
at a tavern, or other semi-private place that acts as a betting parlor. A runner
Courier
A courier is a person or a company who delivers messages, packages, and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of express services, and swift delivery times, which are optional for...
carries the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, called a numbers bank or policy bank. The name "policy" is from a similarity to cheap insurance, both seen as a gamble on the future.
History
The game dates back at least to the beginning of the ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
lottery, in 1530. "Policy shops", where bettors choose numbers, were in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
prior to 1860. In 1875, a report of a select committee of the New York State Assembly
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
stated that "the lowest, meanest, worst form ... [that] gambling takes in the city of New York, is what is known as policy playing." The game was also popular in Italian
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
neighborhoods known as the "Italian lottery", and it was known in Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
communities as bolita
Bolita
Bolita , is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian, and black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small numbered balls are placed into a bag and mixed thoroughly, and bets are taken on which...
("little ball").
By the early 20th century, the game was associated with poor communities, and could be played for as little as $0.01. One of the game's attractions to low income and working class bettors was the ability to bet small amounts of money. Also, unlike state lotteries, bookies could extend credit
Credit (finance)
Credit is the trust which allows one party to provide resources to another party where that second party does not reimburse the first party immediately , but instead arranges either to repay or return those resources at a later date. The resources provided may be financial Credit is the trust...
to the bettor. In addition, policy winners could avoid paying income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
. Different policy banks would offer different rates, though a payoff of 600 to 1 was typical. Since the odds of winning were 1,000:1, the expected profit for racketeers was enormous.
Harlem
Francis A. J. Ianni, in his book Black Mafia: Ethnic Succession in Organized Crime writes: "By 1925 there were thirty black policy banks in HarlemHarlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues." By 1931, there were several big time numbers operators, James Warner, Stephanie St. Clair
Stephanie St. Clair
Stephanie St. Clair was a bookmaker in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood.-Early life:Madam St. Clair was born of mixed French and African descent on Martinique. She immigrated to the United States via Marseilles in 1912 and ten years later took $10,000 of her own money and set up a numbers bank in...
, Casper Holstein
Casper Holstein
Casper Holstein was a prominent New York mobster involved in the Harlem "numbers rackets" during the Harlem Renaissance. He, along with his occasional rival Stephanie St. Clair, was responsible for bringing back illegal gambling to the neighborhood after an eight-year absence following the...
, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, Wilfred Brandon, Jose Miro, Joseph Ison, Masjoe Ison and Simeon Francis. The game survived despite periodic police crackdowns.
Italian lottery
The Italian lottery was operated, as a racket
Racket (crime)
A racket is an illegal business, usually run as part of organized crime. Engaging in a racket is called racketeering.Several forms of racket exist. The best-known is the protection racket, in which criminals demand money from businesses in exchange for the service of "protection" against crimes...
for the American Mafia
American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
, originally, in Italian-American neighborhoods such as Little Italy, Manhattan
Little Italy, Manhattan
Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italians. Today the neighborhood of Little Italy consists of Italian stores and restaurants.-Historical area:...
and East Harlem by mobsters of the Morello crime family
Morello crime family
The Morello crime family is the direct ancestor of the Genovese crime family, the oldest of New York City's Five Families.-From Corleone to America:...
. A young Joseph Bonanno
Joseph Bonanno
Joseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family. He was nicknamed "Joe Bananas," a name he despised.-Early life:...
, future boss of the Bonanno crime family
Bonanno crime family
The Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
, expanded the Italian lottery operation to all of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and invested the profits in many legitimate businesses. In the 1930s, Vito Genovese
Vito Genovese
Vito "Don Vito" Genovese was an Italian mafioso who rose to power in America during the Castellammarese War to later become leader of the Genovese crime family. Genovese served as mentor to future mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante...
, crime boss
Crime boss
A crime boss or boss is a person in charge of a criminal organization. A boss typically has absolute or near-absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates for his ruthlessness and willingness to take lives in order to exert his influence, and profits come from the...
of the Genovese crime family
Genovese crime family
The Genovese crime family , is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The Genovese crime family has been nicknamed the "Ivy League" and "Rolls Royce" of organized crime...
, gained control over the Italian Lottery, allowing him to have ample money to invest in nightclubs in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
.
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...
is said to have rigged this system, thanks to an idea from Otto Berman
Otto Berman
Otto Biederman, known as Otto "Abbadabba" Berman , was an accountant for American organized crime. He is known for coining the phrase "Nothing personal, it's just business."...
, by betting heavily on certain races to change the Win, Place and Show numbers that determine the winning lottery number. This allegedly added ten percent to the Mob take.
Legal lotteries
Today, many state lotteries offer similar "daily numbers" games, relying typically on mechanical devices to draw the number. The state's rake is typically 50% rather than the 20%-40% of the numbers game. The New York LotteryNew York Lottery
The New York Lottery began in 1967 as the third modern U.S. lottery, after Puerto Rico's began in 1934, and New Hampshire's in 1964. It provides revenue for public education, and is based in Schenectady.-History:...
and Pennsylvania Lottery
Pennsylvania Lottery
The Pennsylvania Lottery is operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The lottery was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on August 26, 1971; two months later, Henry Kaplan was appointed as its first executive director...
, even use the names "Numbers" and "Daily Number", respectively. Despite the existence of legal alternatives, some gamblers still prefer to play with a bookie for a number of reasons. Among them are the ability to bet on credit, better payoffs, the convenience of calling in one's bet on the telephone, the ability to play if under the legal age, and the avoidance of government taxes.
Winning number
One of the problems of the early game was to find a way to draw a random numberRandom number
Random number may refer to:* A number generated for or part of a set exhibiting statistical randomness.* A random sequence obtained from a stochastic process.* An algorithmically random sequence in algorithmic information theory....
. Initially, winning numbers were set by the daily outcome of a random drawing of numbered balls, or by spinning a "policy wheel", at the headquarters of the local numbers ring. The daily outcomes were publicized by being posted after the draw at the headquarters, and were often "fixed". The existence of rigged games, used to cheat players and drive competitors out of business, later led to the use of the last three numbers in the published daily balance of the United States Treasury. The use of a central independently chosen number allowed for gamblers from a larger area to engage in the same game and it made possible larger wins. When the Treasury began rounding off the balance many bookies began to use the "mutuel" number. This consisted of the last dollar digit of the daily total handle of the Win, Place and Show bets at a local race track
Race track
A race track is a purpose-built facility for racing of animals , automobiles, motorcycles or athletes. A race track may also feature grandstands or concourses. Some motorsport tracks are called speedways.A racetrack is a permanent facility or building...
, read from top to bottom. For example, if the daily handle (takings at the racetrack) was:
- Win $1004.25
- Place $583.56
- Show $27.61
then the daily number was 437.
By 1936, "The Bug" had spread to cities such as Atlanta where the winning number was determined by the last digit of that day's New York bond sales.
Odds and payout
A player's chance of winning on one number is one in 1000. In illegal numbers games, depending on time and place, winning on most numbers may pay off as high as 800 to 1 or as low as 600 to 1 (in Norristown, PA in the 1950s the payoff was 500 to 1). Typically, certain more popular numbers, known as cut numbers, have reduced payoffs, typically as much as 20% less than other numbers. Numbers such as 777 were cut numbers to prevent the possibility of the bank being overwhelmed by a hit on those numbers. The difference between the dollar amount of the tickets bought and the amount paid out is the vigorishVigorish
Vigorish, or simply the vig, also known as juice or the take, is the amount charged by a bookmaker, or bookie, for his services. In the United States it also means the interest on a shark's loan. The term is Yiddish slang originating from the Russian word for winnings, выигрыш vyigrysh...
, which the bookie keeps to cover overhead and make a profit for himself. In the Norristown, PA area part-time sub-runners collected bets on both numbers and horses in their neighborhoods and workplaces (factories, retail stores, movie theaters, the local police station, the county courthouse, etc.). The sub-runners earned 5% for this service. The runner then earned 15% of the numbers bets he "picked up" on his route, which left 30% for the bookie. The bookie "laid off" excess bets to a better financed local banker so as to keep his daily risk manageable. The local banker in turn laid off to a higher level banker when his daily book became too unbalanced. The bookie also paid upward through the banker a daily tax on his volume. This tax went up the line to the organization (based in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in the case of Norristown, PA in the 1950s) which defined and guaranteed his territory, and which also organized payments to politicians to reduce "heat" on the business. A measure of the effectiveness of this "protection" is that in the 1950s a runner in Norristown made daily stops at both the local police station and at the Montgomery County courthouse to pick up numbers and horse bets. In one case when the PA State Police were planning to do a raid on the business the first act they did after alerting the local police was to station a trooper at the police department switchboard to discourage warning from going out.
Policy dealers
- Sai Wing MockSai Wing MockSai Wing Mock aka Mock Duck was a New York Chinese criminal and leader of the Hip Sing Tong, which replaced the On Leong Tong as the dominant Chinese-American Tong in the Manhattan Chinatown in the early 1900s.-Emigration:...
(1879-1941), operator of policy game in Chinatown, New York in the 1900s - Albert J. AdamsAlbert J. AdamsAlbert J. Adams was known as The Policy King and the Meanest Man in New York. He ran the numbers game in New York City from around 1890 to around 1905.-Biography:...
(1845-1906), operator of policy game in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the 1900s - Peter H. MatthewsPeter H. MatthewsPeter H. Matthews was an operator of policy games in New York City.-Biography:In 1915, agents of Charles Henry Parkhurst's Society for the Prevention of Crime and 45 police officers raided his gambling operations and rounded up a number of persons connected with this crime. Many were known...
, operator of policy game in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the 1900s - Stephanie St. ClairStephanie St. ClairStephanie St. Clair was a bookmaker in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood.-Early life:Madam St. Clair was born of mixed French and African descent on Martinique. She immigrated to the United States via Marseilles in 1912 and ten years later took $10,000 of her own money and set up a numbers bank in...
(1886–1969), operator of policy game in HarlemHarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, in the 1920s and early 1930s. - Joseph Vincent MoriartyJoseph Vincent MoriartyJoseph Vincent Moriarty , also known as Newsboy Moriarty, was a Irish American mobster in Hudson County, New Jersey who controlled the numbers game.-Biography:...
, operator of numbers game in Hudson County, New JerseyHudson County, New JerseyHudson County is the smallest county in New Jersey and one of the most densely populated in United States. It takes its name from the Hudson River, which creates part of its eastern border. Part of the New York metropolitan area, its county seat and largest city is Jersey City.- Municipalities...
in the 1950s - Ken EtoKen EtoKen Eto , also known as Tokyo Joe and "The Jap", was a Japanese-American mobster with the Chicago Outfit and eventually an FBI informant who ran Asian gambling operations for the organization...
(1919-2004), operator of policy game in ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles... - Don King operator of a policy game in Cleveland
Policy reformers
- Lexow CommitteeLexow CommitteeLexow Committee . The name given to a major New York State Senate probe into police corruption in New York City. The Lexow Committee inquiry, which took its name from the Committee's chairman, State Senator Clarence Lexow, was the widest-ranging of several such commissions empaneled during the...
, uncovered illegal gambling in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... - Charles Henry ParkhurstCharles Henry ParkhurstCharles Henry Parkhurst was an American clergyman and social reformer, born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Although scholarly and reserved, he preached two sermons in 1892 in which he attacked the political corruption of New York City government...
- F. Norton GoddardF. Norton GoddardFrederick Norton Goddard was a Republican Party politician from New York City.-Biography:...
Timeline
- 1860 Private lotteries flourish in large cities
- 1894 Lexow CommitteeLexow CommitteeLexow Committee . The name given to a major New York State Senate probe into police corruption in New York City. The Lexow Committee inquiry, which took its name from the Committee's chairman, State Senator Clarence Lexow, was the widest-ranging of several such commissions empaneled during the...
investigates - 1901 Albert J. AdamsAlbert J. AdamsAlbert J. Adams was known as The Policy King and the Meanest Man in New York. He ran the numbers game in New York City from around 1890 to around 1905.-Biography:...
arrested in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... - 1906 Albert J. AdamsAlbert J. AdamsAlbert J. Adams was known as The Policy King and the Meanest Man in New York. He ran the numbers game in New York City from around 1890 to around 1905.-Biography:...
takes his own life - 1916 Peter H. MatthewsPeter H. MatthewsPeter H. Matthews was an operator of policy games in New York City.-Biography:In 1915, agents of Charles Henry Parkhurst's Society for the Prevention of Crime and 45 police officers raided his gambling operations and rounded up a number of persons connected with this crime. Many were known...
dies in prison - 1964 New HampshireNew HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
starts the first modern US lotteryNew Hampshire LotteryBegun in 1964, the New Hampshire Lottery is the oldest US mainland-based lottery. New Hampshire's games include Mega Millions, Powerball, Hot Lotto, and numerous scratch tickets.New Hampshire is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association , which it joined in 1995...
In popular culture
The 1948 film noirFilm noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
Force of Evil
Force of Evil
Force of Evil is a 1948 film noir directed by Abraham Polonsky who had already achieved a name for himself as a scriptwriter, most notably for the gritty boxing film Body and Soul . Like Body and Soul, the film starred John Garfield...
revolves around the numbers racket, with the plot hinging upon the workings of policy banks. The film tells of a gangster who is trying to take over all the banks in New York City by rigging the mutual numbers to come up 776 on Independence Day
Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
. Since everybody plays those numbers for the Fourth of July, the banks will go bankrupt filling the policies.
In Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
's film Malcolm X
Malcolm X (film)
Malcolm X is a 1992 biographical motion picture about the Muslim-American figure Malcolm X . It was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington as the titular character. It co-stars Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., and Delroy Lindo...
, Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
's main character acts as a numbers runner for a character named "West Indian Archie" in Harlem.
In the 1973 film The Sting
The Sting
The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936 that involves a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss . The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who previously directed Newman and Redford in the western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Created by...
, the main character (played by Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
) spends most of the film evading assassins after he cons
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
a numbers runner out of several thousand dollars worth of racket money belonging to a powerful mob boss (portrayed by Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw (actor)
Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...
).
Mobster Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...
's attempts to take control of the New York numbers rackets have been portrayed in two separate films: 1991's Billy Bathgate
Billy Bathgate (film)
Billy Bathgate is a 1991 American crime film directed by Robert Benton, starring Loren Dean as the titular character and Dustin Hoffman as gangster Dutch Schultz. The film co-stars Nicole Kidman, Steven Hill, Steve Buscemi, and Bruce Willis. It is based on the novel of the same name by E.L....
, about a young boy (Loren Dean
Loren Dean
Loren Dean is an American actor. He has appeared onstage and in feature films.-Early life:Loren Dean Jovicic was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. His mother worked as a family and marriage counselor and his father was in the clothing business. His parents divorced when he was a small child...
) to whom Schultz (Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
) takes a liking, and who witnesses the gangster's decline and fall, and 1997's Hoodlum, which purports to tell the story of the mob war between Schultz (Tim Roth
Tim Roth
Simon Timothy "Tim" Roth is an English film actor and director best known for his roles in the American films,Legend of 1900, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Skellig, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Rob Roy, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for...
) and black gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...
) over control of the Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
numbers racket. Both films were heavily fictionalized.
In an episode of Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....
, Fred plans to bet on the "numbers" after he has a dream about having the winning number. His son Lamont is against his plan, but Fred bets $1 anyway and wins $600.
In the boardgame Illuminati: Crime Lords (Steve Jackson Games) you can own Numbers game enterprises for different districts of a city, along with other criminal rackets.
In the film The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, Sonny and members of the Corleone family discuss the fact that black gangs have taken over their "policy banks" due to the turmoil caused by the gang wars between the Corleones and other New York Mafia families.
See also
- The Association for Legalizing American LotteriesThe Association for Legalizing American LotteriesThe Association for Legalizing American Lotteries was an illegal lottery disguised as an organization in 1936....
- BookmakerBookmakerA bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
- BolitaBolitaBolita , is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian, and black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small numbered balls are placed into a bag and mixed thoroughly, and bets are taken on which...
- Four Eleven Forty FourFour Eleven Forty FourFour Eleven Forty Four or 4-11-44 is a phrase that has appeared repeatedly in popular music and other popular culture, either as a reference to numbers allegedly chosen commonly by poor African Americans while gambling, or to the combination of width and length of a penis, through multiplication of...
- FafiFafiFafi or fa-fi , also known as mo-china, is a form of betting played mainly by black South Africa women, particularly those living in South African Townships, and is believed to have originated with South Africa's Chinese community....
Further reading
- New York Times; Wednesday May 19, 1883; Policy-dealers Punished.
- Lawrence J. Kaplan and James M. Maher; The Economics of the Numbers Game in American Journal of Economics and Sociology;
- Nathan Thompson; Kings: The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers An Informal History; The Bronzeville Press ISBN 0972487506 (2003)
- Shane White, Stephen Garton, Stephen Robertson and Graham White, Playing the Numbers : Gambling in Harlem Between the Wars. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-674-05107-2.
- Sucker's Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America, Herbert AsburyHerbert AsburyHerbert Asbury was an American journalist and writer who is best known for his true crime books detailing crime during the 19th and early 20th century such as Gem of the Prairie, Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld and The Gangs of New York...