Toodoped,

I did the ancestry.com thing, not sure if it is reliable, and we are no relation to Trigger Mike, Frank Coppola, nor Francis Ford Coppola either. My ancestors are from a small town in Calabria. The gambling piece that I did witness on occasion was in the late 50's and early 60's and had the same cast of characters plus my Father and two Irish Guys, one owned a neighborhood store and the other a small restaurant that were fronts for gambling activities, at night the back rooms were turned into casinos. My Father had a high stakes card game at our house regularly. Not sure if your Italian or from New York but every house in New York that I lived in had a basement. Now according to my Mother me, my two brothers and two sisters were not allowed to use the living room, that was only for company. So my Mom had the basement remodeled and that was our living room. My Father made sure it had a bar and a card table. My Dad rarely played, just ran the game and collected the fees. My cousin Christopher, who resembled a Gorilla at the time, was always present to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves My Grandpa and My dad also had a numbers racket that was run out of the corner deli owned by a Jewish guy. It was a small industrial city with a large Italian population. Hundreds of people from the local paper mills and manufacturing plants played the numbers. For the most part the local authorities looked the other way. Occasionally one of the store owners would get popped for a small time gambling charge, pay a fine and they would be back in business the next day. The Judge at that time was Italian and a friend. My Dad has passed and now my Mom lives with me and the wife in Florida and she lets me use the living room on Sundays BTW can somebody from NYC please FedEx me some real Italian Bread, the stuff they have here in Florida isn't fit for the ducks in the park