The Changing Structure of American Gambling in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The author examines some of the factors that altered the economics and control of policy and numbers gambling, bookmaking, and casino gambling from 1900 to 1950. The factors include the emergence of black ghettoes after World War I and the consequent rise of blacks to controlling positions in numbers and policy banks; the changing ownership and activities of the national race and sports information service; the increasing use of the telephone for making sports bets; and the sudden wealth of bootleggers in the 1920's along with their growing involvement in gambling enterprises. The author concludes that these factors exercised a diverse and interrelated influence on the history of American gambling.