How does such a as that lottery type thing work? They were unable to payout the $100,000, but how would anyone outside of them know. They could have just changed the numbers, and nobody would have known. The guy would have thought he lost. Why all this trouble?
shareIf I understand your question correctly, you're asking about their numbers racket, and why they could not just lie about what number had won.
The answer is that (assuming it worked the way those things usually do) the number would be something public. It would be something random, and public, that was agreed to in advance. Otherwise, bettors would have no way of knowing that they were not being cheated in the way that you describe. No one would ever win if the "number" was not something that could be independently verified.
How could it be public. If it were someone could tell police, and it would be shut down. It must be private for the protection of it.
shareThe Numbers racket were based on scoreboard results from baseball ie, hits ,runs ,errors ect....
So there is really no way to shut it down or control the events and thats why it was really a great racket , So I'm gatherering if they in Baltimore It all depended on how the Orioles did in the game # of hits , # Runs ,# errors , Same in New York .
The winning number in the "numbers" lottery was usually based on the attendance from a local racetrack. Let's say the attendance at the Pimlico Racetrack (In Baltimore) was 13,512. The two winning numbers for the day would be 512 AND 312
shareWhich raises the question why did they not limit each play to a $1 or $2 max? There is no way they did not see the actuarial risk they were taking on with this new extra thing. That $50 should have been spread over 25 or 50 'slips'.
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