The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-11-08

AOANO many NHo ~ lily H~ HcN~J - eANf~N "a tN%
q it can be suppressed. Work against it may have
an end.
1t purports to be a lottery, but it is a cheat.
ZNss and not in any proper sense gambling. l. is sim
~SmfN% ply a gross fraud upon people who have very little
49, money. to whom it is held out as a possible means
Of getting more. ITS MANAGERS DEFRAUD WITH DELHI
ERATE ARTICLE.
In most policy shops the writer or operator will accept a play
as low as one cent, and in no policy shop is two cents refused; this is
to get the pennies of women and children. The policy writer or pol
icy hacker is AN OUTCAST ANON H GAMBLERS, and has
a doubtful standing among thieves.
The results OF putting a ~poHcy-shop out of business are some
times as astonishing as they are delightful. Families in the neigh
borhood, whose children, while the shop was running went bare
footed and hungry, whose rent was always unpaid, and whose be-
longngs we're most Of them at the pawnshop all Of a sudden be-
came prosperous, the children receive clothes and food, the land
lord is paid, personal belongings come back from the pawnshop,
and SELF-RESPECT SOON TAKES THE PLACE OF DEGRA-
DATTON.
The deluded player" supposes that policy is conducted like a
lottery that Is balls, numbered I to 78, are placed in a box, rolled
around, aud that a bindfolded person draws forth r. This
drawing is supposed to take place in Kentucky, and the numbers to
be telegraphed to New York. There are two lotteries, the customers
understand-one called Kentucky and one ~State"-and each is
sues two slips with lucky numbers daily except Sundays and holidays.
The player goes into a poIcy-shop and announces to the
writer" what numbers he wishes to bet on, and hands him the stake.
The usual way is to bet that three numbers which the player names
will be found among the numbers of the next drawing, for instance,
5tI44 The player must state whether he is betting that his three
numbers will appear in the result column headed Kentucky" or
State and if he wins he is paid 100 for l. If the player wants a
better chance, he does not name the column; but if he wins in that
~aoC liz cSCNCS OHY y " L.
Mechanically, the chance of naming three numbers out Of
twelve drawn from 78 is about one in $50.
Thus the odds against the player are almost four to one. But
the men behind this swinde RESORTTO ARRANT FRAUD to de-
pnve the player of even the normal fraction OF a chance to win
THERE is NO LOTTERY ABOUT THE SWINDLE, either in
Kentucky or elsewhere. The men behind the game are in a syndi-
cate, and they meet twice daily and select the numbers to be given out
as the result OF a lottery drawing.
The pathos of all this is that policy is not a gamble, not a lot
tery; It'll a low and odous fraud. 1t depends for its dupes upon those
least able to suffer from it; seven cents, it has been calculated, is the
average bet; and an inteligent-appearing ~wel[dressed person car
scarcely find an opportunity to play. When a person becomes wha
is called a policy 6end," he plays twice a day. How many OF thu
poor it must hold in thrau can be estimated from the fact that TIT
receipts in New York are about $4,000 a day. "A" Adams alone
as indicated by the memoranda seized at his arrest, received $4,000
day.
The work of %suppressing policy in New York is making rapN
progress. Two or three years ago there were 1900 shops; a month
ago there were 400 at most; to-day here are less than 400. Man,
causes contribute to the success of the effort to suppress policy. On
Of the most important is the amendment to the ANTHOLOGY Law TIL
passage Of which by the legislature l secured a little over a year ago