LOTTERY MAD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 528, 11 May 1933, Page 7

LOTTERY MAD

TREMENDOUS SUMS WIDESPREAD GAMBLING IN THE UNITED STATES. ORGANISEt) SYSTEMS, i The United States "seem to have g-one lottery mad." That i§ the opinion express.ed by Mr. Horace J. Donnelly, of the Post lOffiee Department. Americans axe wagering more than a billion dollars — normally £200,000,000 — a year that they can guess the temperature, the last thr.ee figuresi of the daily 'Treasury balanee, butter and egg prices on the Chicago Exchange, or the total "pay-off" — that is, the amount paid to investors by totalisators — in the first five races at a given raee track. These billion dollars ;2.re not money which flows in the legular and age-old ehannels of wagering — horse races, subscriptions to foreign lotteries, recognised sweepstakes and >so forth. They constitute a comparatively recent system of soeailed "policy" betting in which the individual sums wiaigered do not exceed 10 cents. Gambling has always heen widespread in the United States, but about forty years ago it suffered a tremendous setback and was kept in a more or less eontrolled state by reason of well-organised reform movement? in almost all of the States. Within the last three years, however, gambling has taken on much less controllable forms; this time doubly strong, doubly subtle, and preying upon the very poor. Ironically the groups which have been hardest hit by the economic criisis iare the groups which most lavishly support the new practices — the negro and Latin-American populations. -The betting process is known as "numbers" or "policy," with odds of 1000 to 1 against the bettor. Such lucrative fields have Harlem — the seetion in New York in which the negroes and Latin-Americans live — and "black belt" areas in other cities become that dnian investifjation conductedby Judge Samuel Seabury, it was disclosed that oue "policy king" had profited to the cxtent of 1,250,000 dollars — normally £250,000 — in four years, land another "king" had banked 1,750,000 dollars — normally £350,000 — in six years. The industry is so well organised and it pays such enormous dividends — to the "kings" only — that it can emp'loy an army of door-to-door solicitors who call for the bets in the morning land give news of the results in the evenings, and expensive legal talent to defend the bookmakers or solicitors who fall into the clutches of the law. It is a modern organisation, too-, for it has "efficiency engineers" who supervise the collectors, and as in very many other huge org.anisations these "effimiency engineers" often become #"raeketeers" who prey on the system. The vast institution has a voice — it publishes its own newspaper. Working of the Game. The working of the game, as de- ■ eribed by an expert, is as follows: — "The 'policy bnalcers' hold drawings every day in the week excepting Suniuy. They send out collectors who have lists of regular patrons, and who call every morning, handing out slips of paper to be filled in by the hopeful gamblers. Every player writes down the number of his choice, always consisting of three figures. The collectors turn in their slips, together with ineir duplicate sheets, the latter going fo the operators Then the drawing is held, and late in the afternoon the collector makes another round among his customers to see who has been fortunate. The winner is he who has been lueky enough' to set down three numbers exactly corresponding to the daily figures issued by some such institution as the New York Clearing House, Stock Exchange, New York Federal (Ees.erve Bank, or the Federal Iteserve Bank." The same expert writes that " 'policy players' are intensely superstitious, tre lying upon dreams! and interpretative dream books. Certain things in certain dreanis apply to certain numbers. White horses, hunchbacks, birds of paradise and children are good luck: monkeys, mules, black horses, old women, and anything to do with sickness are bad luck. Some players open a telephone directory at random and put their finger on a telephone number with their eyes closed; others take numbers from railway goods cars' or trams, or us.e motor car numbers. Serial numbers on dollar bills are alse in favour." Sk'.fistics reveal the collections in "policy" gambling in Chicago to be £400,000 weekly; in San Francisco, whcre the Chinese lottery is popular, to be £1,000,000 weekly; in New York £200, 000 weekly; whereas in Washington and Pifctsburgh collections amount to £20,000, in St. Louis £7000, and Boston £30,000. Where the negro population is heaviest in industrial cities this forni of gambling is greatest. In some cities the law is more vigilant than in others, consequently ui some parts of the country the gambling goes en condoned by offieials. fn Cleveland, however, several operator- have heen arrested for having evaded income tax.