‘NUMBERS RACKET’ EVERYWHERE IN N.Y.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30480, 30 June 1964, Page 13

‘NUMBERS RACKET’ EVERYWHERE IN N.Y.

(From FRANK. OLIVER, N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent)

NEW YORK, June 29.

Crime is like the national debt, it always goes up and never comes down. The New York figures are making headlines these days. Figures for the first three months of the year have just become available and show that major crime increased about 25 per cent over the first three months of 1963.

A few figures tell the story. Homicides in those aged 16 to 20 increased by 7 per cent, but over that age by 35 per cent. The increase in rape for adult sges was between 8 and 9 per cent.

In narcotic drug cases the increase for youngsters was more than 88 per cent and for adults more than 53 per cent Car thefts were up by 25 per cent.

The crime stories in the newspapers make sad reading There is one area in the north-west area of the city where residents bolt themselves in at night and only go out under dire necessity because of the amount of crime in their area—murders, assaults, burglaries and the like.

This may be the richest city in the world but it still suffers from a chronic shortage of police and the unhappy• evi-

dence is that not all the police are as good as they ought to be. A few days ago the police commissioner found it necessary to dismiss 10 policemen for being involved in the numbers racket, a form of gambling that is found in practically every large city in the nation. There are citizens who feel strongly that if the police paid less attention to gambling and more to crimes such as homicide, rape, felonious assault, theft and burglary it would be better for the city. Citizens who feel this way include a great many who indulge in the numbers racket They get quite hot under the collar when the numbers racket is discussed. They ask, with what seems a degree of justice, why it is all right to go to. the nearby race course and make a bet through the tote machine, all right to go to a church social and play Bingo for prizes but wrong, indeed illegal, to woo lady luck With a dollar or two in the numbers racket.

What they overlook is that the church benefits financially from the Bingo game, the State Government gains financially from the tote betting on the race course but neither State nor city government gets a cut off the estimated 200 m dollars a year that goes into numbers betting. Numbers betting remains a crime. Better Return The reason for the popularity of the numbers game in New York is not far to seek. At the race track so much is taken out by authorities concerned that a horse has to be a rank outsider to pay a return of five to one. In the numbers game the pay-off is sometimes 600 to one and apparently seldom lower than 300 to one according to facts and figures produced by the “New York Times.”

The newspaper says about half the annual bets of 200 m dollars come back to the lucky few who “hit the number,” which varies from day to day. Some of the money goes as commissions “to runners and controllers, salaries to accountants and security look-outs, fees to bail bondsmen and lawyers and graft to the police.” The “New York Times” says a “numbers man” can be found in almost every factory and office building, collecting dimes, quarters and dollars from' employees. He takes bets from housewives in their kitchens and in elevators, from crews on the water-front, from men in a Harlem bar, workers in parking lots, shoppers in the grocery store and supermarket, from run-down tenements and men in the Turkish bath house.