Detroit, MI
Detroit native reminisces on height of illegal gambling in the city – City Pulse
By BILL CASTANIER
I had a great-aunt who ran a gambling operation out of a wallpaper store, and as a small child, I was fascinated by all the numbers she and her partner wrote on scraps of wallpaper. That’s why I anxiously awaited the publication of “When Detroit Played the Numbers: Gambling’s History and Cultural Impact on the Motor City,” by Felicia B. George. I was not disappointed.
George, a career law enforcement official and adjunct professor at Wayne State University, is a spot-on researcher who has turned her doctoral dissertation into a remarkable book on the history of the numbers racket in Detroit, a form of illegal gambling that was a huge part of the city’s cultural milieu until the legal lottery doomed its existence.
Without preaching, George makes the case that the implementation of the legal lottery system was a detriment to the city’s self-reliance. During its heyday, the numbers racket employed thousands of workers and poured money back into the city’s infrastructure and charitable institutions.
With facts and figures, the author shows how “money from Detroit numbers funded various businesses, newspapers, insurance agencies, loan offices, housing projects, prize fighters, night clubs” and much more.
She writes, “When the formal economy failed its citizens, the informal economy filled the void.”
For those who know nothing about how the numbers game is played and operated, George provides a primer in several chapters and describes how peoples’ processes for picking numbers evolved over time. Some selections were obvious, like a birthday or an anniversary, but other players turned to fortune tellers and church preachers for their picks.
Eliciting picks from dreams was very popular, as were “dream books” published by entrepreneurs. These books helped players interpret their dreams into numbers. For example, a dream where a dog appeared would become the number 73, according to “Old Aunt Dinah’s Policy Dream Book.”
In the early chapters of her book, George details how state-sponsored lotteries in the 1700s and 1800s were used to fund public works and even the American Revolution. By 1878, lotteries had been banned in all states except Louisiana, which continued its lottery until 1893.
With the lottery banned, Detroit turned to the numbers game, also known as policy gambling. Most of the activity was housed in betting parlors. By 1887, it was estimated that 160 “policy shops” were operating in Detroit.
The book reads like a true-crime thriller when George delves into the life of the legendary numbers kingpin John Roxborough, who ran the largest operations in Detroit from the 1920s through the mid-1940s, when he was arrested and imprisoned. Roxborough was also the co-manager of boxing champion Joe Louis, nicknamed the Brown Bomber. George explains how Roxborough used the profits from his numbers racket to support Louis on his climb to the championship.
The author also considers the sociological impact of Detroit’s numbers racket and how it provided hope for thousands of Black citizens trying to survive the daily grind. She quotes one newspaper as stating, “In the Negro ghetto, it was the only hope you could afford.”
For a nickel bet, one could win $25, with the odds somewhere around 1,000-to-1.
It probably goes without saying, but the rampant illegal gambling in Detroit wouldn’t have been successful without lucrative bribes to local officials to look the other way. In 1940, a former mayor, a former county prosecutor and many police officers and numbers operators were indicted, including Roxborough. Most received short-term prison sentences after a “spectacle for the public,” the author said of the trial.
George ends her book with a chapter titled “The State of Michigan: The Legal Numbers Man,” which details the state’s long process of trying to legalize the lottery. Success came in 1972 when voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the state constitution ending the 137-year-old ban.
The state’s first legal lottery pick was held in November 1972 and was a somewhat convoluted process that involved clowns and dancing girls in short skirts. The winning numbers were 130544, with the numbers 130 and 544 paying out $25 each to more than 25,000 players. Unlike the illegal lottery, there were no home deliveries of the payouts.
Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams got a 15-yard penalty for taunting Chicago Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson for the second time this season on Sunday. The former Alabama All-American got the first during the Lions’ 23-20 victory over the Bears on Nov. 28, then picked up another in a 34-17 win on Sunday.
“He was great,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said about his sideline talk with Williams after Sunday’s penalty. “Came over and it’s just, ‘Look, you can’t give them a free ride.’ He knew. It’s just, ‘Get it out of the way and get back on the field.’ And he was good.
“That’s what I love about him. He doesn’t get bent out of shape. He just said, ‘I got it.’ And he goes back in and it doesn’t affect the way he played the rest of the game. He was great. I love where he’s at right now. I really do.”
The NFL was not as understanding. Williams was fined $11,255 for the infraction, the league announced on Saturday. The NFL did not fine Williams for his taunting penalty on Nov. 28.
JAMESON WILLIAMS SCORES LONG-DISTANCE TOUCHDOWN AGAINST CHICAGO BEARS
Williams wasn’t the only former Alabama standout fined by the NFL for taunting during a Week 16 game. Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, a former Hoover High School star, also was fined $11,255 for taunting. Humphrey was not penalized during the game for the transgression, but the NFL still imposed the fine after the cornerback held out the football behind him toward his pursuers as he returned an interception for a touchdown in a 34-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday.
MARLON HUMPHREY SCORES MILESTONE NFL TOUCHDOWN FOR ALABAMA
Two other players from Alabama high schools and colleges were among the 22 fined by the NFL for Week 16.
Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (Alabama) got an $11,255 penalty for a face-mask penalty.
Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Colby Wooden (Auburn) got a $6,150 fine for an unnecessary-roughness penalty.
The NFL uses a collectively bargained schedule of fines to determine the amount of monetary punishment. The NFL’s Schedule of Fines also comes with a list of aggravating and mitigating factors that can affect the size of a fine.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.
The Detroit Tigers saw an influx of young players push the team into a surprise postseason push. Next year could have even more prospects make their debut,
So far this offseason, the Tigers finally made a signing to address the offense in Gleyber Torres and have added Alex Cobb to the pitching staff.
Signing Alex Bregman is the last major move left to make before season that Detroit is projected to be involved in. After that, it looks like it will be on the farm system to provide any additional upgrades.
Luckily, there are a couple of top prospects that look near ready to make their debuts.
Lee is the highest-rated prospect on this list, as all of his peers above him in the farm are either already in MLB or are further away.
He spent all of 2024 in Double-A and posted a .298/.363/.488 slash line with 12 home runs and 16 RBI in 87 games. There could be a path to playing time for him at shortstop given how poor they have played there in the past. He could also just be a utility infielder at the next level.
Melton mostly lives on his mid-90s fastball. He had a breakout 2023 that saw him post a 2.74 ERA. That number ballooned to 5.10 last year.
He has great control of his pitchers, rarely walking batters, but still needs to generate more misses. He could be a call up to help out in the backend of the rotation at some point, where he can eat some innings if need be.
Bigbie was a 19th-round selection in the 2021 draft and spent all of last year at the Triple-A level.
Like Melton, he had a great 2023 but struggled in 2024. Two seasons ago, Bigbie posted .343/.405/.537 slash line with 19 home runs. Last year, though, his OPS dropped to just .667.
If he can find his swing again, he could become a corner or depth outfielder. His glove isn’t good enough to carry him alone.
Silva was acquired at the last trade deadline in a deal that sent Mark Canha to the San Francisco Giants.
He looks more like a bullpen guy than anything, making his money with breaking balls. He pitches well against both righties and lefties and is coming off of a month that saw batters post just a .120/.185/.120 slash line against him.
The 22-year-old won’t start the year in the Majors, but is a prime mid-season call-up candidate if he can find a bit of consistency.
(CBS DETROIT) – Detroit comedian Jay Cotton says he started a bit of an uproar on social media, but he didn’t mean to.
In the video he found online, he claims 13 lions are roaming the city of Detroit. Cotton says the video has nearly half a million views since it was initially posted, with many people thinking it was really filmed in the Motor City.
He says he thought it was pretty clear that the video was posted as a joke.
“It was just me being funny, y’all,” he said. “Like, I love the city of Detroit. This is my city. I love y’all.”
Within days, social media users across platforms started reacting to it in an unusual way.
“Not enough people are talking about what’s going on in Detroit right now,” one user says. “Please someone explain to me how 13 lions are walking down the street in Detroit,” another user said.
Now, the chef and comedian behind the post says he’s sorry for anyone he may have scared, but he hopes this serves as a reminder not to believe everything you see online.
“At the end of the day, yeah, it was a joke, but people don’t really use their brains. If the news not talking about it, that’s how you know it’s not true … just go look it up,” Cotton said.
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