Sorry to be a killjoy about this moving story of survival despite the “high odds” against this struggling black family, but did Ms. Davis’s mother declare for tax purposes any of her gambling-derived income?
5
Congratulations, New York Times, for publishing an utterly contemptible column.
The author has done her best to portray an illegal vocation as black self-empowerment and no doubt for her family it was empowering. But the fact remains that there are reasons why is heavily regulated. The intrusion of organized crime and the tremendous damage gambling addiction has done are realities in this aberrant world. That her mother’s criminal activity gave her a spacious Colonial home and lavish family reunions is beside the point. The point is that she injured countless people in the name of her self-rationalizing lifestyle.
Sorry, but the ends do not justify the means.
The author admits to buying lottery tickets regularly. For such games, you can find the odds, say, on a big payoff as 1:3,000,000— you have a one in three million chance of winning the jackpot. But I think the correct answer is actually zero. You have no chance of winning, and even entertaining the possibility that you can win can put you on a dangerous slide that will erode your wealth.
It is to America's shame that gambling is most promoted among those who can least afford it—those in the ghettos and on the Indian reservations. It is, in effect, a highly regressive tax on ignorance, but perhaps for the common good the state should tax idiots.
Like I said. A contemptible column that harms exactly those people the author claims to speak to and help.
12
Good family story about just how complex life is when you raise kids in difficult circumstances. Thanks.
10
What a delightful story-
Our family didn't play the numbers, but my father taught me math and patience by taking me to the track from the time I was 8 years old.
He gave me $20.00 for the 9 races and the daily double, the racing form, and let me pick my own horses as well as how much to bet. He would double his bet on the next race after a loss to recoup, while I basically chose my horses from the jockey's colors. My second trip to Aqueduct, I won 6 out of 9 races, and missed a trifecta by a nose.
Such happy memories.
Thanks for writing this piece about your mother.
13
Very interesting. I remember that when growing up in NYC my aunt and mostly everyone in her neighborhood, played the numbers. It was very innocent. Good article.
Please keep printing your variation of articles, particularly on lifestyle.
9
Beautiful, heartfelt, and true. Bet wisely!
5
Thank you for sharing an aspect of African-American life that is litttle known outside of the black community.
11
I would have liked to hear about some of the big risk / big purpose gambles the author took.
We know that for the mother, she bet that the numbers business would pay off for her family and we see that it did.
My father suffered from a gambling addiction. Yes, he bet (mostly) legally, but he was a serious addict and wiped us out financially. The hardship, shame and family dysfunction left very deep scars, some of which will never heal.
So, unlike so many of the other commenters and the author herself, I don't find this a feel-good story about an enterprising woman. But a massive rationalization of a daughter who is willing to overlook her mother was a low-level criminal for decades. Of course, she didn't pay taxes either, so cheating the government was also part of her legacy. No doubt some of the people who gambled with her were addicts, so she was also a social predator.
Why the Times would choose to highlight this story as opposed to one of an enterprising woman whose work actually benefited society is beyond me. Drug dealers also make good money and buy their kids nice clothes. It doesn't make them heroes.
16
My father, ca 1942, was flying back to his British Army post in South Africa from California. He had a silver dollar in his pocket, and, not wanting to take it to Capetown, put it in a handy slot machine, pulled the lever, and won the jackpot. The floor was carpeted in silver dollars far and wide. He enlisted help to sweep them up and hand them to a bartender, instructed free drinks until they ran out, and stepped onto his airplane.
18
If you must gamble, try to "be the house"; write covered calls against stock you own. Last week I made almost 800 in pure option income off of about 74k in stock. Even after escrowing for taxes, it's a nice piece of change. Not bad for about 60 seconds of, uh, "work"!
"My favorite was when a visitor would recount a dream and my mother would look up what it played for in her dream book..."
Back in the 1980's - when I was living in Washington Heights - a predominantly Latino community in upper Manhattan - I dated a Puerto Rican woman for few years --
This article reminded of the time I woke up one morning a told my girlfriend that I had a dream I was riding on a New York City bus --
Before I could continue telling her about my dream - she interrupted me - asking very earnestly - "Did the bus have a number ?"
Amazingly enough - I was able to recall the four-digit identification number of the bus --
Upon telling her this - she immediately jumped out of bed - threw on some clothes and ran down to the local bodega to play the number --
Unfortunately - the number did not hit that day - but that was my introduction to this betting system -
I can tell you that long after New York State legalized this type of gambling and began selling lottery tickets -- there were many people who held on to their familiar "underground" numbers game and were hard-pressed to give it up --
And Ms. Davis' mother was right - life is a risk -- which is why - "You gotta be in it, to win it" ...
6
As a six year old, living in Newark in 1948, I couldn’t understand why my dad needed to rent a different car every week. The routine was to drive to the Weequake Diner; and, while I dined on oatmeal and “shoo-fly” apple pie, dad would leave me to make phone calls. The diner, btw, was mentioned in Philip Roth’s, “Pornoy’s Complaint”. Also mentioned was that it was a meeting place for the then known “Jewish Mafia”. Things were going swimmingly to my young protected mind, until my dad and older brother, suddenly, “had” to travel to Miami, leaving mom and I alone for several months.
Years later, I discovered my mother was the brains (dad was the collector) behind a successful bookie operation. Too successful, it seems. The Big Guys, made my folks a very “generous” offer for their business. I recall mom and dad mentioning the name “Longie” a lot in their whispered conversations.
4
My parents played the illegal numbers racket. My father hit a number for $5,000 in 1972. Lot of money back then. They immediately hired a realtor and bought a house in Queens to escape Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and live a quiet middle class life.
I learned that my parents do not gamble they cannot afford to lose.
I learned how to take risks from my parents. I don't gamble with money, but taking different kinds of risks. But, I resigned from a 2 jobs without something lined up knowing I deserved and could do better (I did) and had a foundation to go back to should my gamble not work out (never expected it would not).
6
What a great article! I can’t wait to read the book!
5
There is a huge difference between occasional or low-level gambling ("having a flutter", as my mother used to say) and habitual gambling. I buy the odd lottery ticket myself, and I enjoy the brief hope it offers. But habitual, 'deep' gambling is a disease which can ruin a person's life and the life of their family. Viewed on a larger scale, such gambling often effectively becomes a tax on people with lower incomes and thus it is even more ruinous to individuals and society.
Making light of gambling in general is an irresponsible thing to do, and I think this article veers in that direction. It is true that 'life is risky', but that is exactly why most people exercise caution.
6
As a young farm kid in the 60's and early 70's I spent every Saturday at the "greenmarket' or farmer's market in Milwaukee, WI. The owner of the luncheonette nearby sold hamburgers and her employee sold lottery numbers. For quite a while I was mystified by the cigar box, the understated wink and the nod and shuffling of paper and money between customers and the grown up Italian-German busboy.
This is a wonderful article. Bravo NYT for publishing this article.
6
having partaken in in the illegal business of my own outdoor home grown marijuana to help me, with my own hands, build a small small home in a economically difficult rural community in Colorado and to almost finish raising 3 daughters, one of them by myself, i utterly identify with this author. I understand her mother and i'm sure had i ever known her really well we would have been fast friends.
i knew how to grow food and transferred this knowledge to growing something that was risky to grow but did not compromise me ethically. I still don't use the weed but i saw no other way to achieve some kind of economic foothold. i continued to work as a carpenter, kept my head down, and provided for my kids. they reaped the benefits of more time spent with a parent who tried to show them bigger ideas out there. now weed is legal here but i've never regretted one day of that decision. it paid off for my kids.they understand now that my endeavors were for all of us. we laugh about it!
12
Ironically enough, last night we watched "Molly's Game," a terrific picture about a high-achiever (possibly with Asperger's Syndrome?) who ran a "clean" high-rollers' gambling operation. It was illegal, but she kept it "clean" for years and kept up her part of the bargain.
I find gambling a waste of time and money, but it's far more ethical than many "legitimate" business practices, forcing women (or men) into prostitution, and pushing addictive drugs (or tobacco) on minors. (Truthfully, getting pleasure by oneself from one's own body is a more sensible practice--as one ALWAYS gets a payoff! But
My late mother was a whiz at bridge--could recount hands played some 20 years before macular degeneration took her sight, and also subconsciously counted cards at blackjack, doing very well on that game on two round-the-world cruises.
4
I grew up in Chicago within walking distance of 2 race tracks, and since the mob was in charge, there was racing almost year round. We were lower middle class. and always looking to move up the financial rung.Fortunately only one family member got the gambling addiction.
I have a lot of respect for the author's mom and for the pride she has what her mother did to keep her family together, despite its "illegality" as seen by the powers that be.
8
Great story. Your mom was a hero for sure.
7
Wrong. The man or actually men who were the house,at least in Newburgh NY, where I grew up in1950-1960 knew their customers and employed them as bookies, runners, retailers, bagmen, bankers and when need be (rarely because it ‘‘twas by and large a cash business) enforcers and lived with and among the crowd. By and large all along the chain the maxim was not to kill the golden goose. It was well known and respected that depriving the patrons of the ability to feed , clothe and shelter their families was not bad for business but beyond the pale. Once gambling became “legit” under state control not only did the odds get worse for the patrons, all bets were accepted and the families of the addicted suffered and still suffer as never before.
12
Not only bad for business.
The original memo in response to legalizing gambling with state run gambling. On the whole gambling hurts the poor no matter who separates them from their money.
3
One of life's lessons is no matter what you do, you are never "safe". You get sick. Husbands leave. Kids end up with troubles you never imagined. So the metaphor here is apt. (Clearly the author is not an actual gambler.) Many women live with a great deal of fear, protecting homes and family, being good girls in the work place, afraid of some higher power condemning them. Gambling is necessary. If you are unhappy and have a chance to bet your life on a happier and more independent future, take it. Be alert to your life as it passes. Many older women regret they hadn't done taken more risks. So kudos to your mom, her self-reliance and the life lessons she passed on to you.
16
Good for the author's mother. She reasoned well. Sounds like she raised a pretty smart daughter.
5
Your mother clearly understood probability. She recognized that the odds were heavily stacked in her favor. The reason you had a middle class lifestyle was because her clients didn’t understand probability. This is nothing against your mother, but her gains came at the cost of her clients. I appreciate that you and she recognized that targeting numbers while horse racing and bingo were allowed likely had a discriminatory basis. But gambling, including the lottery, disproportionately targets the poor. That’s the reason why so many people have railed against it, not because they want to discriminate.
Human nature being what it is, gambling will always be with us. So the best way to deal with it is probably by legalizing it.
9
One sided view - No talk of lost houses, broken families, drugs and prostitution. Look at Detroit. Look at Atlantic city.
The house ALWAYS wins. I worked in a union shop as a teen, and remember a steward running around in a panic trying to raise $16k. Couldn't get a loan in time. Ended up getting beaten up, lost his house which was worth much more than the money owed. He then fell into a hard drug habit. This may be extreme, but loosing is the norm, not the exception.
The reason you get an adrenaline rush from gambling is because it is inherently stupid, like jumping out of a functional plane. The bigger the bet, the bigger the rush.
Lottery tickets are the most dastardly - as it is state sanctioned and play on the poor.
9
Playing the numbers was not just something black people in Detroit did. Also in Detroit, my husband's Polish/German grandmother played the numbers every day, as did my FIL. It was a "thing" poor folks did, regardless of color. I laugh at the comments about investing in the stock market instead: it is the biggest form of legalized gambling in the country.
20
Bridgett, your mom sounds like a neat lady. I think I'll check out your book.
5
The title of this article is misleading. The author's mother ran a numbers business. The piece doesn't talk about her life as a customer.
4
Your mother had the odds in her favor when she took bets. You don’t have the odds in your favor when you place yours.
14
Wonderful story. My own mother brought my sister and me up in the noisy shadow of a racetrack. Despite near poverty, she loved to handicap the horses and bet as much as she could. And she did well. Of the many life lessons she taught me, my favorite was: “The less you bet, the more you lose when you win.”
What a delightful and thrilling story!!! I'm smiling all over. Thank you, Bridgett Davis. Your Mom was betting on you, too, and what a payoff!
8
My father played my birthdate on the day after I was born and won. He also had a favorite number that he played for years, straight and in combination. On the day he died, my cousin asked for that number and played it. It hit the day before my father’s funeral.
My cousin had played the number twice. One ticket he cashed , giving my mother half his winnings.
The second ticket he tucked in my father’s suit pocket. We buried him with his winning ticket.
18
Great story. I would love to see that dream numbers book. What a great family artifact to have.
1
I think I was about ten in Inwood (upper Manhattan) when I overheard a letter carrier talking to someone and realized he must be a numbers runner. I guess the legal lotteries have pretty much put the numbers racket out of business, but I've heard that the odds were better in the numbers. And as for the claim that the lottery's profits all go to "education", I think they go into the state's "general fund," which pays for many things, so you may as well say it pays for the governor's limo.
8
What a morally uplifting story. Instead of being exploited by "the Man," poor African-Americans can be exploited by a woman of color.
11
Not the message I took from this story, Mark! I think you missed something in there. I don't buy lottery tickets because they don't offer me hope. But they do, for some people, and for those, why not? Hope can often be in short supply!
2
@Lisa
So "hope" means buying numbers where on average you lose your money, while the numbers seller on average *always* makes money? If Ms. Davis's clients i.e. suckers had put their money in mutual funds, or even bank CDs, they could have bought nice things for *their* children.
8
@Mark Nuckols Sorry Mark, but you can't buy a mutual fund or a CD with 5 cents or even a dollar. Like many Blacks, at least of a certain age, I grew up around people who played the numbers, but many were bets for 5 to 50 cents and it wasn't done all the time or even regularly by my family.
For working poor people, especially those with sketchy or non-existent credit, even if they managed to save a few hundred dollars, which might take a couple of years, there are no CDs and or mutual funds you can join with $300 or $400 bucks. There are savings accounts, but it is likely that a car repair or needing to replace a broken refrigerator will take your years of savings (and the little credit you have) sooner or later.
I knew people, many in my own family, who played (& play) the same numbers whenever because at one time they hit when it really meant something to them. I get it, but never really got into that (yes, I buy a lottery ticket on occasion and go to a casino a few times a year).
But had my mom been able to save the pennies she spent on numbers in 60s and until they become legal in the 70s, it would not have made any difference for her or us. It just wasn't that much money.
11
Your mother was a wise capitalist businesswoman.
After my great grandfather divorced and married the woman with whom he was having an affair with, my black great grandmother and great aunt ran the best and biggest black whore house in Atlanta. My grandfather and great uncles and aunts were able to attend and finish college or start businesses or buy land with their business earnings.
My Big Momma and her daughter were armed and dangerous. They needed no pimps. They owned the preachers, politicians and police. They were in the " Beauty School" business.
23
Sometimes we gotta go into underground businesses to succeed. As a Mexican American I see this in my community every day, I just passed a street food vendor and paid for breakfast at someone’s home who is raising money to send to her daughter at UC Berkeley.
6
My grandfather played the numbers in the Bronx in the 1960's. He never won but every November his bookie gave him some money as I felt he won so he could celebrate his wedding anniversary.
1
I got started in my gambling life by a friend who took me to the Del Mar Racetrack outside San Diego one summer day in the 90's. She had a "system," as do most horse betters, and she taught it to me. I started going every day, betting on several races a day. I remember that as one of the best summers of my life. The sunshine, the crowds, the horses, the nervous energy in the air, the announcer calling the race, the exhilaration as my horse pulled away from the pack and thundered down the track to the finish. Even in the 90's, there were still colorful Damon Runyon characters hanging around the track. Mostly older men, these guys wore checkered sport coats with racing forms stuck in the pockets, chain smoking and discussing the track conditions, trainers, jockeys, the health of the horse. They accepting me, a young woman trying to learn the ropes, and would give me tips and explain the nuances of racing to me. I spent one entire season at Del Mar, and while I didn't win a fortune, I didn't lose one either. But, my experience was one I'll never forget.
11
@Ms. Pea
Beautiful. The horses coming off the far turn and headed for the wire, necks stretched out, sun glinting in their withers.
As the old saying goes: There’s something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man (or woman).
Only three months to the first Saturday in May. The Run for the Roses. The Kentucky Derby. The chance of a lifetime in a lifetime of chances...
Good luck!
1
I stopped gambling some years back. All of it, from the lottery group at work to the casinos.
The odds are stacked against you. The worst luck I had was when I had a slot machine win. I was so naive and so excited, I thought that the successful lineup would repeat. Of course it didn't. The casino got back what it had paid me - and then some.
Lotto pools were smaller bets at a time, but they add up. The winnings were never much, just enough to make me feel like victory was possible. In time, this seemed like throwing good money at bad.
And in all incarnations of gambling, someone's win comes at the cost of someone else's monetary loss. That just doesn't feel triumphant to me.
42
@NM But that loss is very small, at least in the context of the lottery. Imagine you could make someone very rich (anyone, it doesn't matter) and the "happiness" that comes with it (in quotes, since for me, money definitely doesn't equate to happiness - it really is the root of all evil AFAIAC) for a small loss of your money, what's the harm?
I'm not a big fan of gambling, for the record, but I understand the appeal. I think we all gamble, one way or another, to different degrees, every time we take a risk - life is a gamble. Things like the lottery or the races distill it down its essence. I think it's an insight worth keeping in mind.
20
@NM
Gambling is the essence of capitalism.
1
My father who was steeped in NYC history and culture told me that the just about every luncheonette and candy store in the City took bets. These were all mom and pop operations and they needed the extra cash to stay in business.
Even in the late 1960s I remember my father's employees (all from lower income backgrounds but various "races") placing their weekly 25-cent bets at the burger joint across from the office. (The owner lost the place because of gambling debts.)
Only the advent of legal lotteries stopped the use of bookies, but it did not stop the betting. And notice that it is the successors to the candy stores--smoke and sundry shops--that sell lotto.
27
This is a familiar story. My grand parents were Irish immigrants back in the early 20th century. In their mixed neighborhood of Irish, Italians and Polish, playing the numbers was an ordinary activity of which my grandmother and her neighbors played regularly. The police ignored it to focus on more serious crimes. The authors’s story could have been told in the 1920’s!
33
@Pat
No, this is the story of her African-American mother and although the lottery-playing was common, someone telling the story is not.
4
This essay was just what I needed today.
Not the pro-gambling part. I still refuse to buy a lottery ticket after seeing my grandma get fleeced for years. She was illiterate, and she relied on me to record in her beloved lottery notebook the winning numbers. And I know how every big win was offset by huge outlays that produced nothing.
But, my wife and I have taken a gamble. We decided to use a small inheritance and her VA loan benefits to leverage ourselves into homeownership and a side business as landlords. It has been a huge gamble. And it is scary at times.
We were finally turning a profit on everything... when a hot water heater stopped working yesterday and had to be replaced. $2,000 later I was questioning whether we were foolish to try our hand at real estate.
But Ms. Davis is right: life is risk. And even if we walk away with not a penny to our name we can be proud that a lesbian, minority couple whose families lived in abject poverty just two generations ago was lucky, smart, and brave enough to be able to take this risk. At least we took a risk.
91
@MMG
Do you buy corporate stock?
Do you borrow money?
1
Some of us don't buy lottery tickets from the state because we know if we win our privacy is done for given that the lotto people want your name in the paper. The people I know who won big had to move because people were pounding on their door day and night. The other side of the story is that since they moved and put money in a trust thet have been generous with local cultural groups in their community.
1
Loved your story. Reminded me of my gambling grandmother. She combined numerology and dreams for her gambling. As a child, she would ask me about my dreams and then check her 'dream' book, and play that number. Every topic had a number in her dream book. Children's dreams were said to be lucky! One morning I told her my dream about a horse. She looked up the number for horse, played it and won! We did a happy dance!
74
I remember when fresh out of college, I worked at an entry level job in an auto factory in Detroit. The numbers game was played in every factory. Pick 3 numbers, bet as little as a nickel a day, win back 500 to 1. Of course the odds against you were 999 to 1. But never mind, it was a lot of fun for a nickel. Interesting that many people don't see low level gambling as entertainment. They see it as a vice. Sure, gambling can be destructive. But a family that spends $250/month for 400 TV channels, and $200 for cell phones, is also spending a lot for entertainment. The numbers racket is likely long gone killed by the legal lottery, but the excitement of the chance to win, is a great thrill for the players with limited budget.
95
@Edd
"Interesting that many people don't see low level gambling as entertainment. They see it as a vice."
Many people also don't get any dopamine response from gambling, so for them it is a waste of money and has nothing to do with morals.
6
@Edd
I bought my first lottery ticket the day our 1-year old escaped supervision in the front yard and was brought back to his frantic parents by a mail carrier who had found him walking down the busy street in front of the house. I figured my luck was running high. We were starting careers, broke and every spare cent was going to future-a house down payment, college funds for our preschoolers, retirements. What I realized was that if I won anything, the only thing I really needed at the time but couldn't afford was a pair of navy work shoes. Eventually we bought a house the kids have graduate degrees-and I got the shoes. I still buy a lottery ticket once in a while when I want to think through priorities. It's cheaper than counseling.
9
@Edd
It is interesting that here in Kentucky, the people that complain the most about laws which take away their "freedoms", are the very same people that propose and support new laws to regulate Sunday liquor sales, and outlaw gambling, to take away my freedoms.
6
Booking 999-1 shots at odds of 500-1 is not gambling. It's printing money.
The "gamble" was in the risk of getting arrested or robbed. Kudos to the author's mom for finding a way to provide for her family, but she wasn't "betting" a dime.
8
I liked reading Ms. Davis' story, and her mother sounds like a woman who cared deeply for her family and her daughter's future, but this whole piece was a little too rosey-tinted for me.
Gambling is a particularly foolish way to spend your money. If you have money to spare, sure, go ahead, have a gamble, but it sounds like the people who were betting with Fannie Davis were people with little to spare, and they were spending their hard-earned dollars on a 999-1 shot with only a 500-1 payoff. Any casino game gives better odds than that.
Sure, it must have been nice to hear about the folks who could now do a little something for their family with their extra money. What about the folks who couldn't do as much because they wasted it gambling on the numbers? Their sad desperate stories disappear in the glow of that spacious Colonial brick home in a lovely West Side neighborhood.
Perhaps feeding off of people's vices is unavoidable. Someone is going to provide these services if Mrs. Davis didn't. However, let's not ignore the pain that goes along with all that gambling.
17
@Carl Skutsch
The biggest organized crime betting and gambling families used to dwell on Wall Street. They now live in Silicon Valley.
7
Bookmaking and gambling of this sort usually targets and preys upon lower-class and poor neighborhoods. Those who can least afford it waste money they can ill afford to part with on pipe dreams.
I see nothing positive here and this is the case whether it is of the illegal sort or of the government regulated sort.
9
@Joshua Schwartz. Agreed. But at least the government regulated sort puts money into schools or healthcare instead of fancy clothes for the kids of criminals.
2
Anybody who has money in a SuperBowl pool is doing the same thing as Fannie Davis.
10
17,233.
Today, that is my number. Not to gamble that number, but, to cherish it.
It is a number that means something to me.
17,233 days ago, July 15, 1970, I placed my last bet, $10.00 to win at Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury N.Y on the 6 horse in the sixth race at odds of 5:1; it was all over.
17,233 days of abstinence & recovery have followed.
I gambled with a bookie that was probably mob connected and paid off every Monday at noon in front of 1430 Broadway in NYC. Every once in a while, I collected.
For 10 years I was hooked. My illness of problem gambling was nothing but ongoing devestion for me and my family.
There is a dear cost for society from 5 cent numbers bets to $1,000,000 losses in an evening at a casino.
NO ONE can afford to be a problem gambler, no matter HOW much money a problem gamblers has, it will be gone over a period of time.
Gambling is an equal opportunity killer, rich & poor alike.
Yes, there are benefits from the hurt of others, bookies & organized crime.
Ms. Davis, yes you led a life of passing over poverty due to Mom's "occupation", but, many, many others suffered.
Please do not defend illegal bookmaking with the age old retorts of; "no one forced the customers to gamble", "someone else would have booked the action", "no one got hurt", "they were going to gamble anyway" and "the public wanted this vice like liquor during the years of prohibition."
By the way, the "house" does not bet, they book the action and rarely loose.
13
I read your book and loved all the Detroit stories. I just have to say no one made my down payment on my first mortgage. Comparing people in Manhattan’s ability to get a mortgage does not represent the rest of this country.
1
I grew up in Northern KY in the 50s when thanks to generous donations to the police and judges gambling was found in bookie joints and poker rooms in every saloon,in elaborate casinos and even my father's grocery store which had a slot machine.
The author correctly points out the hypocrisy of Catholic bingo games and the summer church festivals where games of chance were featured.
Gambling is part of human nature. The numbers were often prosecuted only because it was most common among Black people.
8
Risk and reward is a very important lesson for anyone to learn . Being the “house” is even better. For an independent woman to pull this off and make a comfortable living is smart and opportunistic. Congrats to your Mom, but buying lottery tickets is a suckers game and I certainly wouldn’t call it gambling.
If you have some extra money take the advice of it he people above and get into a mutual fund.
Rick K NYC
5
@Richard Kushner An extra $10 is not going to fund a mutual fund for most working poor people. Most of them require at least $1K to start it or $100/monthly contributions.
4
Start with 10 bucks and save for a rainy day until you get to 1000. Only then should you start buying lottery tickets.
1
I didn't see any mention in your column of customers of your mother who may have ruined their lives by gambling or who gambled money they couldn't afford to lose. Nor did I see any mention of your mother turning away customers who had a gambling problem. Gambling may have worked out for your mother and your family but it is not a victimless activity.
13
I never quite understood what the numbers business was. This was interesting.
3
Hat tip, ma’am...nicely done.
2
At least 90% of the readers of this story will have no prob with the author's mother. Yet, if she had been caught she would have spent yrs in prison. Why do we tolerate these laws? At minimum, jurors should be told the sentence that will be imposed if they find someone guilty. But lawmakers and prosecutors know that, if jurors knew the consequence of a guilty verdict, they would return fewer of them.
1
So many human lives destroyed by gambling. How sad.
2
So if you are against gambling, don't gamble.
And don't preach.
12
Another illogical justification by a young person for poor financial decisions. Keep buying marijuana, Canada Goose and scratch tickets and complain you cant afford a house.
3
I support Fannie Davis doing her best to support her family in a time of not just "delimited" civil rights - but stolen and trampled economic rights of black people. When black people were denied mortgages and still are denied interviews for jobs (see this one of several Forbes articles on the subject of black-sounding names/jobs as background https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/09/16/job-discrimination-against-blacks-and-latinos-has-changed-little-or-none-in-25-years/#5739373851e3) the impact is not only near-term with income loss, the long-term denial of wealth-building is not only impacted, it's destroyed.
The current lottery system strikes me as theft from lower income people to the same upper income tranche that benefits from Trump's tax cuts. A while back, when I was seated in the first class seat for the first time because of a random upgrade - I sat next to a man who was one of the founders of the current lottery infrastructure. He was on his way to Afghanistan to brainstorm with a George W. Bush presidential task force of CEOs on new business generation. It was sickening, thinking that not only was the military-industrial complex mining money from the war, the lottery would take money from the Afghan people and bring it to the United States too.
That doesn't really connect with the Davis story, I just don't want my comments supporting Fannie Davis making a living to be construed as supporting the current billionaire-run lottery racket.
5
I love this story.
4
Lovely essay on survival...It always astounds me what people of color must endure to survive, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, professional or just a gambler.
What astounds me even more, though, is what white people, rich or poor, professional or not, understand about the history, past and present, of the lives of Black folks.
White liberals often call for an equal playing field. White racists, don't even believe in a playing field. They believe deeply about equality, they say, therefore, their sons and daughters should not be victims of affirmative action. I mean, is spending $10,000 for a SAT tutor equal to a young, poor African American student in Harlem with little tutoring and working a job after school?
150 years after the end of slavery, after thousands of lynchings and more innocent men and women incarcerated, what does it take to survive in America in 2019?
6
...my father owned an illegal gambling operation in the 1940s...just recently, I discovered the vintage newspaper articles of the day....he was constantly being sued and raided. I have mixed emotions about revelations ( I lived well during my childhood ).... I prefer you had a “normal” occupation
5
Great piece. One suggestion: Don't play government lotteries, which disproportionately put outlets in low-income, black neighborhoods. You can say what you want about gambling, but Ms. Davis' mom, at least, kept the money in the community. Now, with Lotto and the rest, it all gets sucked out.
13
I appreciate reading how your mother taught you about life and risk, and how you keep a link to her by living those lessons and taking your own risks. I lost my mother recently and savor all the ways she is reflected in my life. It makes me smile to think of the moment you saw your house numbers next to your mother’s name. Always with us, aren’t they, in ways big and small.
5
A legalized form of gambling is the options market . You can get 2000% return in one day if you pick one of two possibilities. This is what hedge fund managers do. Perfectly legal. White collar gambling.
5
@Ld And like the casinos, the House always wins in the end.
3
Wouldn’t it be a great thing if we could get rid of money? Imagine a world in which we all went through life with the things we needed and without the unpredictable and fickle swings of prosperity. But we don’t. And our system drives all sorts of clever ways to funnel the river of dollar bills across a strange landscape. I enjoyed this article and I admire the mother’s ingenuity and drive. But I’m left thinking of the void experienced by those playing a 1000-1 chance each day in search of getting their mink coats off of layaway or helping out their daughter in college. Ultimately there are more losers than winners in this antiquated free market system that relies on “I got mine”. Some day we will figure out a better way.
@tgeis No and no we won't. Human nature is human nature.
1
My father, a kind, loving man, had a dream of being an inventor and took that "big risk." He developed a product, patented it, and then bet the family home and every asset we had on ever-elusive success. He believed his invention was certain to become the next legendary American success story.
The major companies rejected his product, but that only meant he had to spend more time perfecting and pitching it. So it literally ate our lives. He became obsessed and took out a second mortgage on our house. We ended up losing everything. My father became so embittered that he would have no more to do with his own family when they refused to "invest" any more in his dream.
Growing up amid this chaos has made me averse to even minor gambling.
When I see people buying lottery tickets, I just shrug. The stories they tell themselves and one another about their chances and dreams sound a lot like my father's rationales.
But there's something deep in the human psyche that wants to take risks. People will doggedly pursue a miniscule chance of windfall in denial of the reality that they will lose their hard-earned money to a virtual certainty.
4
I love this story. It gives me a valuable perspective on integrity and survival in what could be a hostile environment. It also speaks to me about rationalisation and how it can be important to survive and also maintain dignity. Thank you.
14
I love everything about this article, especially the delineation of what true morality is, as well as the mother's wisdom re going large!
11
I've always thought that playing lotto or any numbers game could be defined as an entertainment tax for those who are bad at math. I bought a ticket once, and spent parts of the next days before the drawing imagining what I would do if I won. In the end I decided it was better for my mental health not to play the game at all.
16
Beautifully written, a lovely memory of a self-directed, goal-driven woman. I'll take this forward with me as yet another example of women who "get it done" to protect their kids.
Gambling? Hate it. Just doesn't do anything for me. Not enough of a thrill. But I wouldn't deny others; much the same reason why I support legal weed.
Two different subjects brought together by a skilled writer. Let's discuss them as such.
11
Love the story, and wish my mother had been so resourceful.
The States took over the numbers game with the lottery, again taking away a source of income for resourceful poor people.
6
Fannie Davis was wise; she found her opportunity to provide for her family and was honest for her customers and honest with her children. The big legal banks also pry nickels and dimes out of the pockets of their customers: see Wells Fargo.
And what about the legal payday loan companies? Just because they are legal doesn't mean they don't take advantage of their customers.
Lotteries by governments is just another tax: but it taxes the least wealthy instead of the most wealthy. It's regressive.
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@memosyne
Interesting point about the banks. Once, after reconciling my checkbook, I realized the huge Midwestern bank in which I had my checking account, owed me $0.05-yes, a nickel. I called and demanded that they put the nickel back into my account. The guy who answered the phone sneered at me and I said, "Put it back, It's MY nickel." What if the bank did that to every account? Lots of nickels add up to lots of dollars.
8
While the author paints a good picture of her devoted mother's gambling business, there is a brutal reality to gambling. The reality is that gambling is based on the fact that most people who gamble lose and that people who win will eventually lose their winnings by continuing to gamble.The author admits that she buys lottery tickets, instead of financial assets like mutual funds ,individual stocks or certificates of deposits. The forgoing assets will almost surely be more profitable than playing the lottery, and there are excellent books on how to choose financial assets to purchase. Financial literacy is important. Finally, the author's mother was able to provide her with good housing and an education based on gambling losses by working class African Americans. The gamblers had only a 500 to 1 chance of winning. In my life I have never played numbers and bought a total of $10 worth of lottery tickets, I made a wise financial decision.
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@tmonk677
Gambling aka capitalism caused the Great Depression.
2
Gambling is like a dysfunctional potluck dinner where everyone brings something, and then through a game of chance one person gets everything. Very sad.
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@CED
Wall Street does the betting and gambling thing bigger and better than Las Vegas.
2
If the odds are not horrible, gambling is an investment and a way to create the possibility of having enough money to do something important or nice or special. In a large group of gamblers, some will get more money than they could save and most will get a chance, a piece of hope. For people too poor or too threatened by possible chaos to save a meaningful amount, gambling gives them hope and something to dream about, and once in a while a payout. It is not an unreasonable thing to do.
6
Great story, Bridgett! Your mom is the newest member of my personal Hall of Fame. With a lifetime of 675's ahead of both of us, God bless the mighty Fannie Davis.
28
I loved this piece and look forward to reading the author's book.
All those commenting who are 'tut tutting' about gambling being a vice and her mother's activities being illegal - the lower classes and/or those on the outside of the powers that be have always been excluded economically and have always had a separate economy of their own.
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And as if often the way, preying ( albeit mild in this manner ) and profiting on the ignorance of their own.
8
Thanks for this interesting life story.
I hope the author can ignore some of the commentors' projections.
I will read the book.
30
Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Great story. Great writing.
40
Gambling and betting are one of the oldest forms of human play, steeped in chance, risk, hope, and excitement. Leaving aside the topic of gambling addiction, this essay demonstrates the interwoven nature of community, and how this community and the relationships within it bond over these emotions and the outcome of the bet, as well as the payoff that helped ensure a better standard of living for this family and their friends.
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@Birdygirl: yes, a necessary economic function within a community is sublimated in play, and the emotional dynamics that result, most often in ethical ways. How refreshing it is when the economic function of social activity is not front and cntr, the raison d'etre, but is instead an ethical means toward a noble end [raising a family well] in an otherwise hostile, racist and corrupt society. See Karl Polanyi for more on the history of such ideas. On the other hand, the economic function as the reason of&for the existence of the ailing, aging and demented mind and [orange] body of the 11-yr. old known as POTUS 45 [he who shall not be named] is just another way of saying "life is risk."
I live in a city in Massachusetts that has tens of thousands of folks, immigrants and natives, who are very poor. This essay reminds me of the major reason to oppose the lottery: it deprives ambitious folks who have been badly schooled of a way to economic success, proven over generations. Legalized sports betting will make things worse. The corporatization of these formerly local enterprises takes income from those who need it most, and who are badly prepared for US office existence.
The same is true of legalized marijuana. Many of those who live around me made a significant share of their family income by growing or selling weed. Since legalization has arrived, all those jobs have dried up; the best the neighborhood kids can hope for is clerking for minimum wage. The market in hard drugs is far smaller, and more dangerous. Our city has taken a significant hit. Not exactly a surprise that the dispensaries and marijuana stores are owned by white investors.
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@Jack Walsh
Yes, the lottery ruined everything. I remember the old days when I’d make the short drive over to Lexington (pop. 34,000) to play the number and score weed. With many of the tens of thousands of very poor residents engaged in booking bets, you could shop around for a deal.
I’d park near Lexington Common, buy a bag of weed, and head for the betting bazaar beneath the Minuteman Statue. It was always worth the trip. I never had to settle for less than 600-1 odds.
Just a memory now thanks to the big government lottery.
Sad!
6
@Jack Walsh Nice, but the Lexington thing represents 10 years ago; new address is in a less toney burg. I should change it.
The lottery buying population in Lexington was certainly very small. The pot buying population, however, was not, and it did have to come from somewhere -- probably from where I live now, ultimately. But the point of the comment still stands; both the lottery and the legalization of marijuana were yet other ways of moving both the control of sectors of the economy and the profits to groups that are overwhelmingly richer and whiter.
I'll go change it now!!!!!
1
the one absolute system to win at gambling:
DON'T BET!
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@Frank
Wall Street was and is still built on betting.
9
@Frank In my old Brooklyn neighborhood, everyone played "the numbers". But.....the smart ones always said" don't bet 'em, book 'em!"
1
Here's another point of view - A good amount of this essay is given over to justifying an illegal activity. Not to mention the fact Mom put her family at risk should she have been caught since your father was ailing or out of the picture. The house she bought, and all the great clothes too were in part paid for by those of us who pay wage taxes while she did not.
No, describe what she did, but please don't justify or burnish it. She was a bookie and worked down the food chain yes, but for the mafia which used that illegal flow of poor people's gambling money for its unsavory activities. She was not a charity like a church with bingo nor the state which works for the common good. That her civil rights were delimited is not a reason either.
25
@AG --- responses to a couple of your points come to mind:
(a) "Illegal" is not necessarily the same as "wrong," just as "legal" is not necessarily the same as "right," or even ethical.
(b) The author's mother understood the risk. "She taught me that a gamble ought not be reckless. It ought to be calculated, but not avoided altogether. The bigger the risk, the bigger your purpose needs to be." Providing a good life for your family is a pretty "big" purpose. The risk was considerable, but it paid off in her case.
(c) she may have worked indirectly for the mafia, but her customers paid voluntarily, just as people buy lottery tickets voluntarily now.
I didn't read the column as the author's attempt to justify or burnish what her mother did, but rather as a tribute: this is what my mother was willing to do (and risk) for us. She didn't rob people, or run a brothel, or sell drugs. She broke a law, yes; but did she cause harm to anyone?
113
I admire the gumption. But what about her tax returns ? I ‘bet’ the lower middle income , put-upon by the man, wagering clients of hers paid taxes on their meager yet hard earned wages. And , only occasionally won ( and did not pay taxes on the winnings ). So, as much as I disdain state lotteries, at least they are transparent and fill the public coffers.
8
@AG
Ellsworth Raymond Johnson aka Bumpy played the numbers aka policy while black in Harlem. So did a number of black men on the South Side of Chicago during the same era.
The Canadian Jewish Bronfmans and the American Catholic Kennedys built their fortunes on boot legging. Italian and Jewish gangsters did likewise and organized their crime aka business in the cracks and crevices of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant barbarian pirate majority.
The Great Depression of the 1920's and the Great Recession of the 2000's were both the results of corrupt crony capitalist corporate plutocrat oligarch welfare fraud that was legal.
14
My grandfather was a gambler. He relied on his bookie and loved the horses. His final words to his son, my father, were “two eighty six.” My dad played that number in his honor.
18
This was fascinating, and fun. Your Mother was a strong, practical Woman, who conquered her little corner of a Man’s world. Kudos to Her. I WILL be reading your Book.
Congratulations.
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@Phyliss Dalmatian
You said it better than I could. I'll just add that I'm grateful to learn about her mother's experience since it's a world I didn't know existed. Her mother's savvy and strength are an inspiration.
In addition to reading the book, I also hope to see this on the big (or little) screen if Ms. Davis chooses to turn this into a screenplay.
8