💰 Author Christine Fletcher

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Lawson, one of the more articulate of the Black Nationalist leaders, put this on a par with new housing, diversified business and light industry, and a rent strike as necessary for the economic development ofl Harlem. The money behind several policy banks comes from racketeers active in the thriving il1egal narcotics trade. The banker's profit comes to about 8 cents on every dollar played. Actually there is no law against playing the numbers, The player who gives only his own play to the numbers man cannot be arrested. One reason the numbers runner is more visible than before is that police strategy has shifted from arresting the small fry, who usually won dismissals in court or got off with, fines or suspended sentences. The bank will work in one location only on certain days of the week and at an alternate site on other days to confuse the police and Federal agents. Controllers sometimes have alternate locations. Numbers play enjoys such acceptance in Harlem that public figures like Representative Adam Clayton Powell make open demands that Negro racketeers get their share of the business. The Brooklyn number is much simpler. Only the person who accepts wagers is liable to prosecution. That somebody is the police officer. A runner who takes numbers from residents of the Alfred E. While the annual number of policy arrests has not varied greatly in the last 15 years, the number of higher echelon operators—bankers, controllers, inside men — has increased sharply. Years ago, when most horse bets were made in poolrooms or saloons, no lady would venture into such a raffish place to deal with a bookie. While the runners, and many of the controllers, in Harlem are Negroes, it is a fact that most of the Harlem play is banked by white racketeers, several of whom have their headquarters in the Bronx. Powell first made the accusation that the police were driving out Negro numbers bankers to permit white operators to take over. When the board finds that an officer has fumbled a gambling case or given weak testimony in court, but it finds no proof of graft, the plainclothes man is likely to find himself back in uniform. The game appealed also to housewives, and still does. An elderly woman tenant explained it like this:. It is the last three digits of the day's total mutuel handle—the amount bet at the track—published in all newspapers. But meanwhile, hundreds of winning players have not been paid. The controllers keep track of the bets and make payoffs with money from the bank. The runner or collector gets 25 per cent commission on all play he gathers. And since it is axiomatic among authorities on crime that no illegal activity can flourish so openly without police protection, more people are asking how high the graft goes into the Police Department. With more than 95 per cent of all numbers play based on official track figures, the fever has mounted so that some banks are taking play on trotting races to get additional money from players who want action by night. This legal distinction resembles that of Prohibition. In the simplest type of policy operation, the funners bundle up the slips with the nicknames or initials of players and their wagers. The slips contain the numbers chosen by the players. The next thing I knew, the boys jumped out of the truck and grabbed me. A player may also bet on the first two or last two digits of the day's number. He often operates behind the facade of a grocery or candy store. His hangout may be a pizza parlor, a Harlem bar, the furnace room of a giant housingft development or a Times Square parking lot. In , the upper echelon accounted for 1, of 7, arrests. Murphy believes this is more effective than expending his manpower on going after the runners one by one. The runner pays off the lucky winners. One collector was arrested recently only after the officers subdued three large dogs chained in a room where the betting records were kept. Despite arrests, it has regrouped, at new locations, although after each raid it finds it harder to survive. Several are retired practitioners of violent ventures, who have invested in the numbers racket some of the money amassed from bloodier enterprises. Some players resist the lure of big payoffs for the prospect lof more frequent hits at lesser odds. James R. A few banks, chiefly in East Harlem, take play also on the number that comes up in the legal weekly lottery in Puerto Rico. The players are as varied as there are occupations, ethnic groups and economic brackets fn the city. Four years ago Mr. There are three main reasons for the growing popularity of the numbers. He said the payments to the police were handled by the banker. Police Commissioner Michael J. The runner has become an identifiable character to more New Yorkers in more neighborhoods than ever before. The daily play, gathered from bettors by collectors bottom of chart , moves upward to a controller and, through intermediate drops, to the central bank. There the winning numbers are determined and accounts figured for delivery to the billiard parlor, where the return flow to the winning players begins. Everyone's wise to it; the place has been checked by enforcement units from downtown but it's got away clean each time. This was a warning to stay off that block. Most of them see nothing wrong in a daily courtship of Lady Luck, usually for small sums. Church, where he is minister, Mr. With the arrest of key personnel and the necessity for replacing both them and seized equipment, each raid constitutes an acute business reverse to the bank. He mingles with pier crews on the waterfront. On most winning numbers the bank pays off at to 1. The Gambling Enforcement Review Board, set up four years ago by Commissioner Murphy, has been credited with keeping plainclothes men, and others on antigambling assignments, on their toes. Large operations are usually more intricate. But one such successful raid can halt, or at least disorganize temporarily, an operation involving up to persons, including perhaps runners. In Italian neighborhoods there is still some play on numbers in the daily treasury reports of 10 provinces in Italy. There the winning numbers are circled, each controller's account is credited or debited, and the accounts taken to the controllers. Another runner stuffed them into the carriaage in which he wheeled the baby.

The remainder becomes the booty of the policy bankers—after the payment of commissions to runners and controllers, salaries to accountants and security lookouts, fees to bail bondsmen and lawyers policy racket graft to police. The nightly number is determined by the mutuel figures at policy racket Yonkers trotting races.

Exposure of that arrangement resulted in the dismissal of about 50 policemen and the hasty retirement of others. There is even a Chinese policy game, based on daily policy racket in Chinatown, which involves colors as policy racket as numbers. Even the most exemplary policeman is now kept in plain clothes no more than four years to avoid what Mr.

Most banks accept play on both the Manhattan and Brooklyn numbers. The organization depicted above has been raided, at various operational levels, 14 times. It is still under police surveillance. A combination is a wager on all six combinations of three chosen digits. Almost without exception, the 15 to 20 major bankers in the city today are part of the interwoven directorate of organized crime. I play a combinatin number really six numbers, all possible combinations of the same three digits for 60 cents every day. Each of tlie several controllers shown feeding business into the mainstream has received slips and money from a varying number of neighborhood collectors. It was not illegal to buy a drink, but to sell one was. The bank owner never visits the bank. An unavoidable drawback of hitting the banks at the top is that such raids net only a small—if highly important—fraction of the personnel. The upsurge in numbers playing has brought new problems to Commissioner Murphy. But there is general agreement in police and gambling circles that more people are betting a larger total on the numbers here than ever wagered with bookmakers on horse races. He takes large wagers from paunchy gamblers in Turkish baths. Certainly, they must be afraid of somebody. His interests are taken care of by lieutenants. Because of the Federal gambling tax laws, agents of the Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been working closely with the police in flushing out bookmakers. But the cry for a local share of the profit from the racket has been taken up by others. Both laws were passed at the state legislative session. As a result many horse players have turned to the numbers. The controllers and runners, who never visit the central bank, get the word that there has been a raid and send their play next day to a prearranged alternate central location. Some controllers list their numbers on rice naner that can be eaten. The trend has persisted among most women and has in fact been sharpened since , when bingo—a variant of betting on numbers—was legalized for religious and charitable institutions. In , the figure was 1, of a total of 7, To break a policy bank in such a way as to obtain evidence that will bring convictions may require from six months to a year of planning and surveillance. East Side, West Side, uptown and down, and in the outlying boroughs he is part of the scene. With counted as a number, there is one chance in a thousand of any threedigit number coming up. Because the booking of bets on sporting events involves interstate transactions and is a more complicated operation, estimates on the bookmaking volume vary so widely as to be meaningless. That's numbers, too. Commissioner Murphy, in a report on Feb. Now the police aim at the top. The Manhattan number results from a prearranged way of putting together the payoff prices on the three money horses in each of the first three xaces to obtain the first digit; the same with the fourth and fifth races to get the second digit, and with the sixth and seventh for the final digit. He has one chance in 10 of choosing the right number, and the payoff is 6 or 7 to 1, plus his original investment.