{"id":447,"date":"2010-01-04T10:12:33","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T00:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digitalharlemblog.wordpress.com\/?page_id=447"},"modified":"2019-03-11T16:58:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T20:58:28","slug":"placing-a-bet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/playing-the-numbers-the-book\/learn-more-about-numbers\/placing-a-bet\/","title":{"rendered":"Placing a bet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bets were placed with numbers runners.\u00a0 Some numbers runners went around knocking on apartment doors in Harlem and San Juan Hill to pick up bets from their clients; <a title=\"Numbers on Harlem\u2019s\u00a0Streets\" href=\"http:\/\/digitalharlemblog.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/01\/numbers-on-harlems-streets\/\">others stationed themselves on the city\u2019s streets<\/a> and avenues, accepting business from passing pedestrian traffic.\u00a0 Storekeepers also worked as agents, taking bets for runners.<\/p>\n<p>Runners and agents worked on commission, skimming off twenty percent from their total receipts before they passed the day\u2019s bets and takings on to their \u201cbanker.\u201d As well, if one of a runner\u2019s client\u2019s bets hit, the individual gambler was obligated to pay the runner ten percent of her or his winnings, effectively reducing the winning odds from 600 to one, to 540 to one. In the 1920s there were many runners making $20-30 a day, and it was not unusual for some to make in excess of $50. But, of course, it was the bankers who had the largest opportunity to make money. It was they who were successful, who became the Kings and Queens of Harlem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bets were placed with numbers runners.\u00a0 Some numbers runners went around knocking on apartment doors in Harlem and San Juan&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":411,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-447","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaM3Ks-7d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2650,"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/447\/revisions\/2650"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drstephenrobertson.com\/digitalharlemblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}