Page 109 - The Jazzsipper Novel

108

THE JAZZ SIPPER

1000 to 1, the expected profit for racketeers was enormous. The game was
also popular in Italian neighborhoods and it was known in Latino communities
as bolita "little ball". One of the problems of the early game was to find a way
to draw a random number. 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" which 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
"mutual" 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, which was read from top
to bottom. For example, if the daily handle was win $1004.25, place $583.56
and show $27.61 then the daily number was 437.

Typically, certain more popular numbers, known as cut numbers would
reduce payoffs, typically as much as 20 percent 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 vig, which
the bookie keeps to cover overhead and make a profit for his self. Runners
collected bets on numbers in their neighborhoods and workplaces such as the
factories, retail stores, movie theaters, etc. The runners earned 5 percent for
this service. The runner then earned 15 percent of the numbers bets he
"picked up" on his route, which left 30 percent for the bookie. The bookie "laid