The other night I was watching some cop show on cable and the bad guys,as usual, were “running numbers”.I have heard and read countless references to this illegal pastime but never really understood how it works,or even just what it is.Any help - please.
Slan,
D.
I think it’s making book (illegal gambling), especially falsifying odds.
I’ve always heard it called Bolita.
That’s here a Bookie (bookmaker) makes his daily rounds to collect money and numbers from his customers, similar to the (legal) lottery…
They drop a ball into a Roulette wheel and it pays off to the winning number.
Unless you’re from New York, than it’s called ‘numba’
I’m sure that the phrase has evolved over the years to mean a lot of things involving illegal gambling, and Nano is probably correct in his current day definition. My understanding is that the phrase started back in the 1920’s during the hey-day of the gangsters such as Big Al Capone. This was a time before legalized lotteries. The syndicate would create lottery numbers that people would bet on. The bets would be placed usually with local merchants, who held the money. The person who picked up the money for the syndicate was called a “money runner” or a “numbers runner.” The activity as a whole was referred to as “running numbers.”
That is my impression of the origin of the phrase. I may be wrong. I’m sure there are others who can add more to what I said.
Will O’Ban
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/1485.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolita
http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/Photo%20Gallery/1920_Bolita.htm
Thanks for the input folks.
The first link that Tony posted was exactly what I meant in my original posting. I long suspected that it was some kind of Lucky number,but had no idea how that number was arrived at.
The more I hang around here the more I believe that all human knowledge can be found here!
Many thanks,
Slan,
D.
EDIT.
I just remembered a story I heard Andy Irvine tell at a Patrick Street gig. The band were going to play a set of tunes,one of which was called - Mrs.Kennys runner bean; Allegedly Mrs.Kenny was a bookie and her runner was called John Behan hence the title of the tune.
D.
When I was growing up in New Jersey, numbers was indeed a lottery. They used the attendance figures at the horse race track and the last 3 digits were the winning number. The payoff was 600 to 1, but obviously the odds were 1000 to one so the cut for the bookies was huge.
There were always some strange twists. If you bet 250 near Christmas, the payoff was 500 to 1. It seems too many people liked that number thinking that Dec 25 made it lucky.
Angelo Meola
Actually, that 600 to 1 is a better payoff than most states’ Pick 3 lotteries, which are generally 500 to 1. That’s some nice vigorish for the state, which will only waste it on “economic development” (read “corporate welfare”), rather than sinking it into alcohol and drugs and loose women and otherwise reinvesting it into the local ecomnomy.