Page 110 - The Jazzsipper Novel

109

THE JAZZ SIPPER

off" excess bets to a better financed local banker so as to keep his daily risk
manageable. The local banker in turn lay 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
which defined and guaranteed his territory and which also organized
payments to politicians to reduce "heat" on the business.

Vance could not believe what he was reading, there in his hands was a laid
out plan to put together a shipboard lottery and all he had to do was fit it to
work aboard the ship. The first move that Vance made was to accept the
position that his supervisor had asked him to take the day before; he needed
somebody to manage a secluded aft mess hall storeroom for the rest of the
cruise. No one wanted to do it because you were basically isolated from
everyone else in the crew and it was below decks; which meant that you were
below sea level. Your hours were 7:00 am to 7:00 pm and they were also
determined based on the ships underway-replenishing schedule. There was
a shipboard landline phone inside of the storeroom, an electrical outlet along
with an old desk with a soft leather chair. Vance built up a small library of
books to read and brought down his collection of jazz music that he had taped
on cassette tapes. All Vance had to do was to log into the storage room
logbook when and if someone came to bring in goods or to take any goods
out of the storeroom. The logbook was checked every day by the supervisor
and documented into his daily reports. He could leave anytime he wanted to
as long as he left a note on the door, stating what time he left and the time he
expected to return. Vance never took advantage of the policy and kept his
departures while on duty to less than 30 to 45 minutes, he knew it was a gravy
job to have onboard ship. A lot of the friends that he had made onboard ship