Giancanna was launched as a rising star in Chicago when he presented the bosses with the black policy operation on a platter. The mob had no inkling of the enormous profits of nickle and dime players till Momo had his coat pulled while jailed with one of the two brothers by blood who ran Chi-towns black numbers operation.

Once released Momo kidnapped the guy forcing him to turn over the operation to the outfit. The guy quit, left town, but the operation continued under the helm of another black who told the outfit to go screw. Bullets began flying. The black policy king vs the Italian outfit. At one point the head policy guy took out a made man sent to take him out. He was jailed for the killing, put in protective custody to thwart efforts by the outfit to take him out, then later released to continue the battle to keep the operation in black hands.

The black community lined up behind Teddy Roe, a robin-hood type figure, and symbol of black cohesion against the perceived encroachment by whites on all fronts.

Teddy Roe, who'd amassed a coterie of hardened black gunslingers in his war against the outfit, was ultimately gunned down himself entering his car, shortly after dismissing his gang and stepping out alone. It was later learned he'd contacted terminal cancer, and had little time left.

Momo was later caught on tape by the feds saying ni**er or no ni**er. He went out like a man. Bastard had balls. Shame to kill him.

Dutch Schultz took over the Harlem policy in much the same manner.

In black communities policy was viewed as more than a royal road to riches. There was almost a culture aspect that transcended the actual handoff of a few coins for the chance to escape a life of poverty and despair for one of indolence and ever flowing riches which drew the community together in a sort of communal dream which was lost once the outfit took control.

Yet strangely the odds were better under the new management, and you were less likely to be stiffed after a hit, a winning number.

Still the perception something was lost persisted many years among the old timers who were around to recall the good old days...

Don't know much about how things are now, whether policy is still an LCN concern with wagering being under state control, but thought I'd drop this on what it was some time back...

Currently it's not much of a focus now as it was back between the twenties and sixties. And there are only a few headlines involving the policy activity. Most of the policy business was eventually under a crime familiy in new york, somewhat new jersey and philly as well. But other cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, parts of New Jersey and of course cities in the West and South that have virtually no families operated independently.

I remember when I was a kid there was a wiseguy social club that ran numbers for the neighborhood I lived in the Bronx. And that was like the early to mid-90s. Altho I dont recall it being particularly active. Then again I was just a youngblood.

I think that the dominicans still run numbers in their own communities. there was a bust a few months back. The mob controlled black policy probably till the late 60s when due to increased crime in those areas it became unsafe for white gangsters to operate in those areas and local black hoodlums started robbing their operations.

spanish raymond was the biggest numbers guy in n.y. italians blacks and spanish still work the numbers stores together..

There's been several LCN-controlled numbers operations (almost solely in the New York/New Jersey area) busted in recent years but, like other forms of gambling (cards, video poker) they're very much the exception to the main thing - sports betting.

Do you know if the Detroit family was able to gain control of the policy racket in the city or areas? I read from the book African-American Organized Crime: A Social History that in Detroit the policy kings/operators formed an alliance to counter the detroit crime family but I haven't been able to find more sources of that event.

I don't know of anything written about the numbers racket in Detroit back then. Relatively little has been written on it in general, it seems. One book that came out in the 1990's, The New Ethnic Mobs, said the city's mob family had ceded the numbers rackets to the blacks long ago. But extorting numbers operators was among the charges in the big 1996 bust. I think they were fellow Italians or Middle Eastern (mainly Chaldean) gamblers though. I don't think the Detroit family had much interaction with the blacks by that point.

policy became the state lottery

that racket was taken over by uncle sam and made legitimate

That's what I meant by it now being under state control.