Local News

The Story of the Numbers 

      We all have heard of “Playing The Numbers” but few know how it really began. Before 1920 there were several lottery games of ill repute in New York city. The winning numbers were often chosen in unreliable ways. In the early 1920s, Casper Holstein, a Black porter, liked to study the Clearing House totals. The Clearing House managed the exchanges of money among New York City banks on a daily basis. It occurred to Holstein that the numbers printed were different every day. […]