Poker Number Game Operation

Number Game

We’ll begin our description of how the Numbers game works by defining some terms and listing the personnel. Agent: A person who solicits bets on the Numbers. A storekeeper, shoeshine boy, newsstand poker operator, or an employee of a hotel, office building, industrial plant, etc. In some sections of the country the agent is called a runner.

Runner:

A person who picks up the daily Numbers business from several agents. He is also the payoff man when a player hits a number. Some runners also solicit business from big-time Numbers players. The runner is so called because he is always on the go, trying to avoid arrest.

Controller:

A head runner or branch or area manager who has other runners working under him and who receives their daily collections. He is called a controller because he has to keep the runners in line not always an easy job. Spot controller: A controller who operates without runners. He takes big action from a select clientele of big-time Numbers bettors, usually soliciting his business in the bars and clubs they frequent.

Drop:

The place from which the controller operates for a few hours each day and to which his runners bring their day’s business. It is usually a room in a private home or an apartment and the tenant is paid From $25 to $100 per day for its use, depending upon the size of the drop. There are thousands of such drops in our major cities. Bank (sometimes called the big drop): The headquarters to which the controllers bring their day’s receipts.

Banker:

The operator of a bank. Most banks are controlled and financed by a syndicate of bankers. They must have access to a large bankroll as much as $500,000 in a large city so that they can pay off when players make big hits. Inside men: Employees who use computing machines and other modern office equipment and make up a list of all the bets made and their payouts. The bankers themselves oversee this operation.

Number service:

A service which supplies Numbers bankers with each official winning number as it appears. The poker online number is based on the payoff prices at a specified racetrack. The service office in each large city has a man at the track that reports by phone as the races are won. The service sells the information to bankers throughout the country. Each client pays from $100 to $250 per week plus phone charges. Avoiding police raids where protection is weak or nonexistent requires considerable ingenuity.

York bank:

One runner distributes the number books to agents, another runner picks up the money and a third gets the money slips from the agents. Each of these runners does business with a different controller and each controller operates from a different drop or money bank. Since each phase of the operation is separate, a single police raid can’t wreck the organization, and the cops never get more than a part of the cash receipts even if they raid one of the money banks. Conviction without the slips is impossible; money alone is not considered sufficient evidence. The police are behind the eight ball in this constant Precision Numbers game of hide-and-seek. Here’s an incident my friend Patrick Sullivan, former police commissioner of North Bergen, New Jersey, told me a few years ago.