# Numbers game
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{{Short description|Form of illegal gambling in the United States}}
{{about||the US TV series|The Numbers Game}}
{{hatnote|"Cut number" redirects here. "Cut number" also refers to the codes used to identify [Pasta varieties](/source/List_of_pasta).}}
{{hatnote|"Italian lottery" redirects here. For lotteries in Italy, see [Lotteries by country#Italy](/source/Lotteries_by_country).}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2025}}
The '''numbers game''', also known as the '''numbers racket''', the '''Italian lottery''', '''Mafia lottery''', or the '''daily number''', is a form of [illegal gambling](/source/illegal_gambling) or illegal [lottery](/source/lottery) played mostly in poor and [working-class](/source/Working_class_in_the_United_States) neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the next day. For many years the "number" has been the last three digits of "the handle", the amount [race track bettors](/source/Sports_betting) placed on [race day](/source/Horse_race) at a major [racetrack](/source/racetrack), published in racing journals and major newspapers in New York. In the loosest sense of the word "[racket](/source/Racketeering)", the numbers game is a common racket or ongoing criminal scheme among [organized crime](/source/organized_crime) groups, especially in the U.S.
[Gambler](/source/Gambler)s place bets with a [bookmaker](/source/bookmaker) ("bookie") at a [tavern](/source/tavern), [bar](/source/Bar_(establishment)), [barber shop](/source/Barber), [social club](/source/social_club), or any other semi-private place that acts as an illegal betting parlor. [Runner](/source/Bagman)s carry the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, called a numbers bank. Closely related is policy, known as the '''policy racket''', or the '''policy game'''. Policy was a popular game, particularly in [Italian-American](/source/Italian-American) and [African-American communities](/source/African-American_neighborhood), in cities across the U.S. such as New York ([Harlem](/source/Harlem) specifically) and Chicago. The name "policy" is based on the similarity to cheap insurance, which is also a gamble on the future.[{{cite web |last=Evans |first=Farrell |date=May 9, 2022 |title=How Stephanie St. Clair Built a Gambling Empire in 1920s Harlem |url=https://www.history.com/news/stephanie-st-clair-harlem-queen-numbers-racket |access-date=May 20, 2024 |website=[HISTORY](/source/History_Channel)}}]
==History==
"Policy shops", where bettors choose numbers, operated in the United States by 1860.[{{cite book |author=Thompson, Nathan |title=Kings: The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers, An Informal History |url=http://www.policykings.com/}}] In 1875, a report of a select committee of the [New York State Assembly](/source/New_York_State_Assembly) stated that "the lowest, meanest, worst form ... [that] gambling takes in the city of New York, is what is known as policy playing".[{{cite book |last=Costello |first=Augustine E. |title=Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police from the Earliest Period to the Present Time |year=1885 |location=New York |publisher=self-published |url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/police/ch13pt1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080604001924/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/police/ch13pt1.html |archive-date=June 4, 2008 |access-date=March 11, 2017}}] It flourished especially in working-class [African-American](/source/African_American) and [Italian-American](/source/Italian_American) communities, though it was also played to a lesser extent in many [working-class](/source/working_class) [Irish-American](/source/Irish-American) and [Jewish-American](/source/Jewish-American) communities. It was known in [Cuban-American](/source/Cuban-American) and [Puerto Rican](/source/Puerto_Ricans) communities as ''[bolita](/source/bolita)'' ("little ball").{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}
Other sources date the origin of Policy, at least in its best-known form, to 1885 in Chicago. During part of its run from 1868 to 1892, the [Louisiana Lottery](/source/Louisiana_State_Lottery_Company) involved drawing several numbers from 1 to 78, with bettors choosing numbers on which to bet. Initially, it instead ran by means of the sale of serially numbered tickets, and at another point, the numbers drawn ran from 1 to 75.{{cn|date=March 2024}}
By the early 20th century, the game was associated with poor and working-class communities, as it could be played for as little as a penny. Also, unlike state lotteries, bookies could extend credit to the bettors and policy winners could avoid paying [income tax](/source/income_tax). Different policy banks would offer different rates, although a payoff of 600 to 1 was typical.[{{cite news|title=600 to 1 Odds Lure Harlem to Gambling Orgy. Eager Men, Women and Children Bet Daily on Clearing House Numbers|work= Baltimore Afro-American|date= October 27, 1922| page= 1}}] Since the odds of winning were 999:1 against the bettors, the expected profit for [racketeer](/source/racketeer)s was enormous.[ for example, "One Slain as Gang Guns Bark, ''Boston Globe'', December 31, 1935, p. 1 ] due to the game's popularity in black neighborhoods.[{{cite book |last1=O'Brien|first1=Liam|title=You Bet!: An A–Z of Poker, Casinos and Lotteries |date=31 December 2013 |publisher=Liam O'Brien |isbn=978-1783012916 |at=Search [https://books.google.com/books?id=SdLgDwAAQBAJ&q=nigger%20pool Google Books]}}]{{Page number needed|date=December 2022}}[{{cite book |last=Carr |first=Howie |date=2011 |title=Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano |url=https://archive.org/details/hitmanuntoldstor00carr |url-access=registration |publisher=Forge Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0765365316}}] After [Jerry Angiulo](/source/Jerry_Angiulo) became head of the [Mafia in Boston](/source/Patriarca_crime_family), in 1950, he established a profit-sharing plan whereby for every four numbers a runner turned in, they would get one for free. This resulted in the numbers game taking off in Boston. According to [Howie Carr](/source/Howie_Carr), ''[The Boston American](/source/Boston_American)'' stayed in business in part because it published the daily number.[{{cite book |last1=Songini |first1=Marc |title=Boston Mob: The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer |date=2014 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York|isbn=978-0312373634}}] By the 1970s, the Winter Hill Gang, then led by [Whitey Bulger](/source/Whitey_Bulger), moved bookies under its protection away from the numbers game to sports betting, as the state was starting [its own lottery](/source/Massachusetts_Lottery). Despite the creation of the state lottery, the numbers game's demise in Massachusetts was not immediate, as the state lottery had a lower payout and was taxed.[{{cite book |last=Binder |first=John J. |year=2017 |title=Al Capone's Beer Wars: A Complete History of Organized Crime in Chicago during Prohibition |publisher=Prometheus |isbn=978-1633882850}}]
In the early 1900s, several African American pastors spoke out strongly against the pervasive policy racket in their community. The policy syndicate responded by bombing the church on Dearborn & 38th St. in 1903. In 1905 the Illinois state legislature passed a bill that extended penalties to both policy bookmakers and the players. This had a strong effect on Chicago's policy racket, leaving only two wheels operating by 1907 (with roughly 300 shops to operate them).[ Leading up to Prohibition, the policy syndicate in the African American community was run by Henry "Teenan" Jones, whose reach extended into the primarily white neighborhood of Hyde Park.][LTV021. (December 26, 2020). Momo: The Sam Giancana Story (2014) – USA (Documentary) – Full HD [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuU4FiwJ33w&feature=youtu.be]
===Detroit===
A 1941 trial exposed Detroit's extensive numbers operations. Among the policy houses operating were "Big Four Mutuale" (owned by John Roxborough, boxer [Joe Louis](/source/Joe_Louis)'s manager), "Yellow Dog" (owned by Everett Watson), "Tia Juana", "Interstate", "Mexico and Villa" (operated by Louis Weisberg), "New York", and "Michigan".["Detroit Racket Probe Witness Names Police as Takers", ''Cleveland Call and Post'', Nov. 15, 1941, p. 11-B.] Big Four was said in testimony to be doing $800,000 business a year, with profits of up to $6,000 a week. Yellow Dog was said to be doing $4,900 daily in business, totaling $1.5 million annually. The grand jury in a trial of 71 defendants charged that 10 policy houses had been paying $600 a month equally divided between the chief of police, the head prosecutor, and the mayor, with smaller bribes in the $25 to $50 range to police sergeants and lieutenants. Former mayor [Richard Reading](/source/Richard_Reading) was said to have received $18,000 in payoffs. Reading, Roxborough, Watson, and several others were convicted on conspiracy charges, with Roxborough receiving a {{frac|2|1|2}}- to 5-year sentence and Reading sentenced to four to five years.
===Cleveland===
Benny Mason of the "B&M" policy house and Buster Mathews of the "Goldfield" policy house were the main kingpins of the numbers game in 1930s and 1940s Cleveland. In a 1935 raid on the B&M house on E. 46th St., police found 200 policy writers on hand who had handed in their books and were waiting for the payoff.["Benny Mason Follows Policy Money to Police Station to Count It", ''Cleveland Call and Post'', March 16, 1935, p. 1.] In a 1949 arrest, police picked up a 35-year-old woman named Robinson who told them she had been a policy writer for the past month and a half, at $40 a week. She was writing slips for the Old Kentucky, Goldfield, and Last Chance games, and her top sheet showed she had written $500 in business that day (which happened to be Good Friday) alone.["In Good Friday Raid, Vice-Busters Strike Again", ''Cleveland Call and Post'', April 23, 1949, p. 5.]
By the 1950s, eight rival numbers games operated in black sections of Cleveland, including "California Gold", "Mound Bayou" and "T. & O." The winning three-digit number from 000 to 999 was determined by the closing stock market results in the evening papers, with one digit each being taken from the totals for advances, declines, and unchanged. Bets of up to $2 would be placed with hundreds of numbers writers around the city, who would keep 25% of the money bet as their fee. In the mid-afternoon a runner (locally known as the pickup man or woman) rendezvoused with the writers to collect the policy slips and cash, which were taken to a central location and totaled on adding machines before determining the winners. The runners kept 10% of the money bet as their fee. 65 cents on every dollar bet would be delivered to the "clearinghouse" parlors, which calculated the winners and paid off at 500 to 1 odds, keeping 15 cents on the dollar, on an average day when no "hot" number hit, for themselves. In the evening the runner made the rounds again to deliver the cash winnings to those writers whose customers had hit the winning number, and winners were paid. Several bars, private clubs, and taverns around town, including the "Tia Juana", served as centers of the action where bettors and writers congregated and waited for the winners to be announced.
After a 1955 car bombing in which the girlfriend of Arthur "Little Brother" Drake was killed, police rounded up 28 numbers operators and runners on the east side, including Drake, Geech Bell, Don King, Edward Keeling, Dan Boone, and Thomas Turk.["No Clues in Bomb Death: Mass Roundup of Racketeers is Big Washout", ''Cleveland Call and Post'', Sept. 17, 1955, p. 1.] In 1956, Jewish gangster [Shon Birns](/source/Alex_Birns) tried to keep the peace by setting up a 5-member syndicate of Cleveland's leading black operators, including [Don King](/source/Don_King_(boxing_promoter)), Virgil Ogletree, Boone, and Keeling to control the game, insure payouts when "hot" numbers which had been overbet hit for large scores, and limit the payoff odds to 500 to 1; Birns also attempted to introduce a new method of determining the winning number. The game was wildly popular; in the 1950s one Cleveland numbers house was said to clear $20,000 a day.[Priscilla Zotti, ''Injustice for All'' (Peter Lang, 2005) pp. 1–8.{{ISBN?}}]
===Atlanta===
In Atlanta the game was known as "playing the bug." In 1936 ''The Atlanta Constitution'' wrote: "Both in the business section and the residential areas, one or more solicitors make their daily morning rounds into every office and every home. Then, in the afternoons, the 'pay-off' men make their rounds over the same routes. Their patrons include every class of Atlanta citizens—professional men, businessmen, housewives, and even children."["Smashing of 'Bug' Racket Up to Public, Says Boykin," ''Atlanta Constitution'', December 18, 1936, p. 1.] "The bug" was believed by police to be grossing citywide as much as $30,000 in bets a day at its height in 1937–1938. During a police crackdown in 1943, authorities claimed that the game was in decline and "they are lucky if they bank as much as $12,000 to $15,000 a day", after a raid on an alleged headquarters on Parsons Street.["Bug Racket at Low Ebb in Atlanta", ''Atlanta Constitution'', April 8, 1943, p. 12.] In 1944, eight bug rings were believed to be operating in the city, collectively handling a total of $15,000 to $20,000 in bets on an average day. Writers took out a 25% commission before passing on the rest of the day's receipts to the house.["$3,000 Tickets, 5 Men Seized in Lottery Raid," ''Atlanta Constitution'', June 30, 1944, p. 1.]
Bug writers employed a number of schemes to foil police: in 1936 police observed writers carrying the day's bet slips gathering under the bridge that passes over the railroad tracks at Nelson St. As lottery squad officers watched, a pick-up car pulled up and stopped on the bridge overhead, the writers threw their paper sacks full of bet slips up to it, and the car sped off.["'Bug' Men Driven to Cover of Night," ''Atlanta Constitution'', February 18, 1936, p. 1.] In 1937 indictments were brought against the alleged "big shots" of the bug game in Atlanta, including Bob Hogg, the Hall brothers (Albert and Leonard), Flem King, Willie Carter, Walter Cutcliffe, Glenn House, and Henry F. Shorter.["Ten Reputed 'Big Shots' Named in Bills Drawn for Jury in Lottery Quiz: Hogg, Cutcliffe, House and Halls Reported in List," ''Atlanta Constitution'', Oct. 1, 1937, p. 1.] Shorter was a barber who ran the game out of his barbershop. In 1944, he was one of a select group of 20 African-American community leaders who were turned away from the polls when they attempted to vote in the Democratic primary; the [Rev. M.L. King](/source/Martin_Luther_King_Sr.), father of Martin Luther King Jr., was among the others who participated in this protest.[St. John, M.L. "Token Attempt to Vote Made by Negroes Here," ''Atlanta Constitution'', July 5, 1944, p. 3.]{{Relevance inline|date=November 2025|reason=nothing to suggest that MLK Sr was involved in the lotteries themselves, which are the topic of this article}}
=== Bahamas ===
Numbers games are popular in many Bahamian communities. While gambling in casinos is legal for tourists visiting the Bahamas, it is forbidden for Bahamian residents. There is also no legalized lottery for Bahamian nationals. As a result, the predominant form of gambling among residents is playing the Numbers.[{{cite web|url=http://www.tribune242.com/news/2012/aug/08/gambling-bahamas/ |title=Gambling In The Bahamas | The Tribune |publisher=Tribune242.com |date=2012-08-08 |access-date=2016-02-20}}]
===New York City===
The Italian lottery was operated as a [racket](/source/Racket_(crime)) for the [American Mafia](/source/American_Mafia), originally in Italian-American neighborhoods such as [Little Italy, Manhattan](/source/Little_Italy%2C_Manhattan) and [Italian Harlem](/source/Italian_Harlem) by mobsters of the [Morello crime family](/source/Morello_crime_family). A young [Joseph Bonanno](/source/Joseph_Bonanno), future boss of the [Bonanno crime family](/source/Bonanno_crime_family), expanded the Italian lottery operation to all of [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn) and invested the profits in many legitimate businesses.[{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-may-12-me-bonanno12-story.html | work=Los Angeles Times | date=May 12, 2002 | title=Joseph Bonanno, 97; Infamous Mobster}}] In the 1930s, [Vito Genovese](/source/Vito_Genovese), [crime boss](/source/crime_boss) of the [Genovese crime family](/source/Genovese_crime_family), ruled the Italian lottery in New York and New Jersey, bringing in over $1 million per year, owned four [Greenwich Village](/source/Greenwich_Village) nightclubs, a dog track in Virginia, and other legitimate businesses.[{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zyQiAAAAMAAJ&q=lottery|author=Fred J. Cook|author-link=Fred J. Cook|title=The secret rulers: criminal syndicates and how they control the U.S. underworld|publisher=Duell, Sloan & Pearce|year=1966}}]
====Harlem====
Francis A. J. Ianni, in his book ''Black Mafia: Ethnic Succession in Organized Crime'' writes: "By 1925 there were thirty black policy banks in [Harlem](/source/Harlem), several of them large enough to collect bets in an area of twenty city blocks and across three or four avenues." By 1931, big time numbers operators in Harlem included James Warner, [Stephanie St. Clair](/source/Stephanie_St._Clair) ("Madame Queen"), [Casper Holstein](/source/Casper_Holstein), [Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson](/source/Ellsworth_%22Bumpy%22_Johnson), Wilfred Brunder, Jose Miro, Joseph Ison, Masjoe Ison and Simeon Francis.[[http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/3.html Harlem Gangs: The Numbers Game] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070120061758/http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/3.html |date=2007-01-20 }} from [Crime Library](/source/Crime_Library)] The game survived despite periodic police crackdowns.[{{cite news |first= Margaret|last= Hess|title=Game the Police Are Seeking to Curb Draws Victims From the City's Poor. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/02/25/archives/policy-odds-heavy-against-players-game-the-police-are-seeking-to.html |work=[New York Times](/source/New_York_Times) |date=February 25, 1934 |access-date=2008-07-26 }}]
===Legal lotteries===
{{main|Lotteries in the United States}}
Today, many state lotteries offer similar "daily numbers" games, typically relying on mechanical devices to draw the number. The state's rake is typically 50% rather than the 20–40% of the numbers game. The [New York Lottery](/source/New_York_Lottery) even uses the name "Numbers" for its 3-digit game. 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, the convenience of calling in one's bet on the telephone, the ability to play if under the legal age, and the avoidance of government taxes.
==Gameplay==
One of the problems of the early game was to find a way to [draw a random number](/source/random_number_generation). 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". The existence of rigged games, used to cheat players and drive competitors out of business, as well as the practical obstacles to holding a drawing for an illegal lottery, led to the use of widely published unpredictable numbers, such as the last three numbers in the published daily balance of the [United States Treasury](/source/United_States_Treasury) or the middle three digits of the number of shares traded on the [New York Stock Exchange](/source/New_York_Stock_Exchange).[{{cite book|author=Kevin Cook|title=Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America|date=3 March 2014|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0393239287|page=68}}] In Atlanta, the winning number was determined by the last digit of that day's New York bond sales.[''Associated Press'', February 12, 1936]{{fcn|date=September 2023}}
This is what led to the change from the game of policy, in which 12 or 13 numbers from 1 to 78 were drawn, and players bet on combinations of four or fewer of them, to the "numbers game", in which players chose a three-digit number to bet on. The use of a central, independently chosen number allowed gamblers from a larger area to engage in the same game and made larger wins possible. It also gave customers confidence in the fairness of the games, which could still generate vast profits even if run honestly, as they paid out only around $600 for every $1,000 wagered.[
* [Ken Eto](/source/Ken_Eto) (1919–2004), operator of policy game in [Chicago](/source/Chicago)
* [Giosue Gallucci](/source/Giosue_Gallucci) (1865–1915), operator of Italian policy game in [Italian Harlem](/source/Italian_Harlem) in the 1910s, known as the King of Little Italy
* [Tony Grosso](/source/Tony_Grosso) (1913–1994), operator of numbers game in [Pittsburgh](/source/Pittsburgh)
* [Don King](/source/Don_King_(boxing_promoter)) (born 1931), operator of a policy game in [Cleveland](/source/Cleveland) before achieving fame as a boxing promoter
* [Peter H. Matthews](/source/Peter_H._Matthews), operator of policy game in [New York City](/source/New_York_City) in the 1900s
* [Sai Wing Mock](/source/Sai_Wing_Mock) (1879–1941), operator of policy game in [Chinatown, New York](/source/Chinatown%2C_Manhattan) in the 1900s
* [Joseph Vincent Moriarty](/source/Joseph_Vincent_Moriarty) (1910–1979), operator of numbers game in [Hudson County, New Jersey](/source/Hudson_County%2C_New_Jersey) in the 1950s
* [Abe Sarkis](/source/Abe_Sarkis) (1913–1991), operator of numbers game in Boston
* [Dutch Schultz](/source/Dutch_Schultz) (1901–1935), had a gang war with Stephanie St. Clair and [Bumpy Johnson](/source/Bumpy_Johnson) over the numbers racket in the 1930s
* Nicholas (Iggy) Vaccaro, Mafia associate of the [Patriarca crime family](/source/Patriarca_crime_family) [Boston](/source/Boston) faction and operator of numbers policy game in Boston under family underboss [Gennaro Angiulo](/source/Gennaro_Angiulo) in the 1970s][{{Cite web |title=The Boston Globe 13 May 1965, page 12 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/433780365/ |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}]
* [Stephanie St. Clair](/source/Stephanie_St._Clair) (1886–1969), known as "Madame Queen", operator of policy game in [Harlem](/source/Harlem), in the 1920s and early 1930s
==Policy reformers==
* [Lexow Committee](/source/Lexow_Committee), uncovered illegal gambling in [New York City](/source/New_York_City)
* [Charles Henry Parkhurst](/source/Charles_Henry_Parkhurst)
* [F. Norton Goddard](/source/F._Norton_Goddard)
==Timeline==
* 1860 Private lotteries flourish in large cities
* 1894 [Lexow Committee](/source/Lexow_Committee) investigates[{{cite news |title=Paid $500 To Schmittberger. |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B05E4D81531E033A25751C1A9669D94659ED7CF |work=[New York Times](/source/New_York_Times) |date=October 12, 1894 |access-date=2008-07-26 }}]
* 1901 [Albert J. Adams](/source/Albert_J._Adams) arrested in [New York City](/source/New_York_City)
* 1906 [Albert J. Adams](/source/Albert_J._Adams) takes his own life[{{cite news |title="Al" Adams a Suicide, Following Misfortunes; Broken By Ill-health and Money Losses, He Shoots Himself. Sage & Co. Sank $2,000,000. He Also Felt Deeply The Disgrace Of Prison Sentence. Great Fortune Made In Policy Swindle. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/10/02/101831506.pdf |work=[New York Times](/source/New_York_Times) |date=October 2, 1906 |access-date=2008-07-23 }}]
* 1916 [Peter H. Matthews](/source/Peter_H._Matthews) dies in prison
* 1964 [New Hampshire](/source/New_Hampshire) starts the first modern US [lottery](/source/New_Hampshire_Lottery)
==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [The Association for Legalizing American Lotteries](/source/The_Association_for_Legalizing_American_Lotteries)
* [Bookmaker](/source/Bookmaker)
* [Bolita](/source/Bolita)
* [Fafi](/source/Fafi)
* [Four Eleven Forty Four](/source/Four_Eleven_Forty_Four)
* [Jogo do bicho](/source/Jogo_do_bicho)
* [Jueteng](/source/Jueteng)
{{div col end}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
* [Herbert Asbury](/source/Herbert_Asbury), ''Sucker's Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America''. (1938) pp. 88–106.
* Cooley, Will (2017). "Jim Crow Organized Crime: Black Chicago’s Underground Economy in the Twentieth Century", in ''Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago'', Robert Weems and Jason Chambers, eds. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 147–70. {{ISBN|978-0252082948}}.
* {{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Bridgett M. |year=2019 |title=The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PotbDwAAQBAJ |location=New York |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |isbn=978-0316558730 |oclc=1082363614}}
* {{cite book|author1=Drake, St. Clair |author2=Horace R. Cayton|title=Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYCiCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA470|year=1945|pages=470–94|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226253350}}
* Liddick, Don. ''The mob's daily number: Organized crime and the numbers gambling industry'' (University Press of America, 1999).
* Light, Ivan. "Numbers gambling among blacks: A financial institution." ''American Sociological Review'' (1977): 892–904. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2094575 online]
* Kaplan, Lawrence J., and James M. Maher. "The economics of the numbers game." ''American Journal of Economics and Sociology'' 29.4 (1970): 391–408. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3485243 online]
* {{Cite news |title=Policy-dealers Punished |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1883/05/19/archives/policydealers-punished.html |work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |date=May 19, 1883 |page=2 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book | author=Thompson, Nathan | title=Kings: The True Story of Chicago's Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers An Informal History | location=Chicago | publisher=Bronzeville Press | year=2003 | isbn=0972487506}}
* White, Shane, Stephen Garton, Stephen Robertson and Graham White, [https://books.google.com/books?id=F1ytSoMM8qAC&pg=PP1 ''Playing the Numbers: Gambling in Harlem Between the Wars'']. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0674051072}}.
* Vaz, Matthew ''Running the Numbers: Race, Police, and the History of Urban Gambling'' University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Numbers Game}}
Category:Numbers game
Category:Lotteries in the United States
Category:Organized crime activity
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Numbers game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_game) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_game?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.