Part 3 of 22
The Numbers Game
Define: Number games: The numbers game, or policy racket, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in U.S. cities, wherein the better attempts to pick three or four 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.
The overt exclusion of blacks from the nation's economic, social and political processes only served to foment alternative means toward becoming a part of established idealized factions. Black Americans were frequently denied access to bank loans, good jobs, nice homes, influential political positions, advanced educational opportunities and equal social treatment and benefits. Even those few who were affluent were still denied most social and political equalities and opportunities. To be a black person in America was to be a person looked upon by many in white society as an inferior and non-deserving being. Many black Americans turned to illegal resources to offset the economic denials.Black crime in America was independently run and usually involved such traditional vices as thievery, gambling, prostitution and robbery. Bolito (the numbers game) and drugs became key factors in the evolvement of black organized crime during the 1920s and 1930s. By 1925 there were thirty black policy banks in Harlem, several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues." More than 800 runners (bet collectors) spent each day hurrying back and forth between betting customers and the policy bank (clearing house). Bets could be made throughout Harlem's beauty parlors, bars, restaurants, pool halls, barber shops, drugstores, cleaners, stores and other business establishments. Runners even went to people's homes where they could place bets right at their doorsteps. A class system exists within the black underworld and, other than traditional vices, there is "a number of 'big shots' organizing and controlling crime, vice, and racketeering, as well as other more innocent forms of illegal activity such as gambling particularly the 'policy,' or the 'numbers,' game. The underworld has, therefore, an upper class and a middle class as well as lower class. The shady upper class is composed mainly of the 'policy kings.' They are the most important members of the underworld from the point of view of their numbers, their wealth and their power. The policy game started in the Negro Community has a long history. This game caught on quickly among Negroes because one may bet as little as a penny, and the rewards are high if one wins (as much as 600 to 1). In a community where most of the people are either on relief or in the lowest income brackets, such rewards must appear exceptionally alluring.
During most of its history the policy racket in the Negro community has been monopolized by Negroes
The numbers game (policy game) is a form of lottery that Harlemites played on a daily basis. Even black professionals, influential, and so called "respectable," people played or participated in the games. The game is played by players betting on a series of three numbers from 0 to 999. Numbers runners would collect the money from the bettors each day, leave each bettor a receipt from what was called a "policy book," and then take the cash and policy book to the clearing house, also known as a policy bank. A player would win if his/her numbers matched a preset series of three numbers, which were found in daily newspapers as the last three digits of either the NYSE total, U.S. Treasury balance, or total bets at a selected racetrack. The numbers game seldom favored the players because the results were often "fixed."
Although the numbers game was a nickels and dimes operation, it provided Harlemites an opportunity to gamble and hopefully win on, or hit, a series of numbers to supplement their meager incomes.
( this is my version from reading different article and studying for my own pleasure)
