Bankers, Writers and Runners Quotes

“If any of the numbers people were arrested, Willard and Mariah Redd carried the money to set them free. Being arrested with policy slips or other numbers paraphernalia was a misdemeanour with a fine of $50.”
― John W. Harshaw, Bankers, Writers and Runners: Playing The Numbers In Cincinnati

“The raids brought a revival of recurring rumors of tipoffs on days when hits were made by lucky patrons in the 500 to 1 game. If slips are seized no payments are made. One such tipoff last summer was said to have voided a $50,000 dollar payoff on number 110 when it”
― John W. Harshaw, Bankers, Writers and Runners: Playing The Numbers In Cincinnati

“While Newport housed the numbers Bankers, Cincinnati was the domain of the Runners/Writers and pickups. Runners worked on a commission based on the total amount of bets they wrote from playing customers. The commission ranged from thirty-five percent to twenty percent and when consolidation came in the 1950’s it dropped as low as ten percent. Who were these Runners or policy Writers? Some were well dressed men and women, others were low-key housewives all participating in a business that required no high school, college or business education. They fanned out or ran across neighborhoods and cities looking for players. They booked numbers bets at hotels, schools, big and small businesses and at churches at the risk for being caught with policy slips, which was a misdemeanour, subject to a fine of $40- $50. My grandmother, Lula Harshaw, booked a small number of bets in our kitchen from players in a four block area. She worked for Albert “White Smitty” Schmidt who was”
― John W. Harshaw, Bankers, Writers and Runners: Playing The Numbers In Cincinnati

“Like other enterprises, the numbers game required management, accounting, marketing, organization and the services of lawyers, many of whom were Black. The numbers game spawned many auxiliary businesses. One of the biggest was the Dream Book industry. A dream book, which gave betting suggestions or “spiritually divined numbers”, was as essential to the numbers game as a racing form was to the horse races and most of”
― John W. Harshaw, Bankers, Writers and Runners: Playing The Numbers In Cincinnati