Numbers game

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The Numbers Game or Policy Racket is an illegal lottery game played mostly in poor neighborhoods in U.S. cities, wherein the bettor attempts to pick three or four numbers from zero to nine to match digits that will be randomly drawn. The gambler would place his or her bet with a bookie at a candy shop or a tavern, and a runner carries the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, called a "numbers bank" or "policy bank".

Different policy banks would offer different payout ratios, though a payoff of 600 to 1 was typical. One of the game's attractions to low income and working class bettors was the ability to bet small amounts of money. Usually a gambler could bet as little as ten cents with the possibility of winning sixty dollars. Also bookies, unlike state lotteries, could extend credit to the bettor.

In the northeastern United States this game was known as the "Nigger Pool".^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

One of the problems of the early game was to find a way to draw a random number that the bookie could not be accused of choosing unfairly. One method was to take the last three numbers in the published daily balance of the United States Treasury. When the Treasury began rounding off the balance many bookies began to use the "mutuel" number. This number consisted of the last dollar digit of the daily total handle of the Win, Place and Show bets at a local race track, read from top to bottom.

For example, if the daily handle was:

Win.. $1001.23
Place. $582.56
Show... $27.61

then the daily number was 127.

This variant of the numbers game, where the number depends on an event beyond the bookie's control, is sometimes called a policy game.

In 1875, a report of a select committee of the New York State Assembly stated that "the lowest, meanest, worst form, however, which gambling takes in the city of New York, is what is known as policy playing."Holice and Debbie, Our Police Protectors: History of New York Police [Chapter 13, Part 1]. Accessed on 4/2/2005

Today, many state lotteries offer similar "daily numbers" games, relying typically on mechanical devices to draw the number. The state's rake is typically 50% rather than the 20%-40% of the numbers game. (Pennsylvania even calls its daily lottery "The Daily Numbers Game"; New York simply "The Daily Numbers". [New York State Lottery: Numbers. How to Play]. Accessed 9 July 2006.) In contrast to other state lotteries (often available in the same states) that rely on a parimutuel betting system that reduces the payout when there are a number of winners, the Daily Numbers has, like the old numbers game, a predictable fixed payout. [New York State Lottery: Numbers. Odds.] Accessed 9 July 2006.

Despite the existence of legal alternatives, some gamblers still prefer to play with a bookie for a number of reasons. Among them are the ability to bet on credit, better payoffs, and the convenience of calling in one's bet on the telephone.

Payout

A player's chance of winning on one number is only one in 999. In illegal numbers games, depending on time and place, winning on most numbers may pay off as high as 800 to 1 or as low as 600 to 1. Typically, certain more popular numbers, known as cut numbers, have reduced payoffs, typically as much as a 20% less than other numbers.

Numbers game

Payout

See also