Regarding dontomasso's post, I recall this conversation Sonny started at the dinner table in the first Godfather:
Quote

Sonny: You know n***ers are havin' a good time with our [word?] up there in Harlem, drivin' them new Cadillacs -- payin' fifty percent on a bet.

Carlo: I knew that was gonna happen soon as they started makin' big money.
I wasn't sure what this meant when I first heard it. Does it mean that blacks were recruited as bookies so that the crime families could take advantage of money-making opportunities in Harlem?

Is this historically accurate? (Well, it probably is if a meticulous director like FFC included it. But then again it was just a passing line in the movie, so maybe it wasn't checked for accuracy.)

I'm not exactly sure what a bookie does. I know it has something to do with betting. So I gather people placed their bets on the outcomes of sporting events. But if they won, the bookie gets half the proceeds? Is this how it works, and is this how the bookie makes his money? Oh, such naive questions. Somebody educate me. [Linked Image]