Evening star., 1938-03-30
D. c. .NUMBERSB|[[
AWAITS SIGNATURE
Congressional Sanction Is
Given as Senators o. K.
House Amendments.
By CARTER BROOKE JONES.


Only the signature of President
Roosevelt, anticipated at an early date,
remained today between Washington's
numbers racketeers and a sharp-edged
law designed to run them out of
business.
The so-called numbers bill received
final congressional sanction yesterday
afternoon when the Senate approved
House amendments.
The amendments were accepted by
unanimous consent on motion of
Chairman King of the Senate. Dis
trict Committee. This sent the bill
to the White House.
The principal amendment aimed to
strike at hackers of the game, makes
possession Of original numbers tickets
that is. records of bets on lotteries
evidence of setting up an illegal game.
The other changes made by the House
were clarifying amendments.
Measure Speeded Through.
The measure was speeded through
Congress once it reached the floor of
the House. Passed by that body Mon
day. it was brought up for final action
by Senator King within "a hours.
The Utah Senator sponsored the bill
when it was initiated in the Senate
last year at the request of the Com
missioners, enforcement officers and
citizens organizations. 1t passed the
Senate February 10. 1887, but gath
cred dust in the files Of the House
District Committee until six weeks ago
when committee members overrode the
opposition of Chairman Palmisanc
and revived the legislation. After
hearings the committee reported out
the bill and it passed the House with
out record vote.
Enforcement officers were inclined
today to scoff at a report that the
numbers men had found a way to cir
cumvent the new law. The report had
it that they planned to write in their
numbers books letters of the alphabet
in place of numbers, each letter
standing for a certain number.
No Harder to Establish.
The officials pointed out that If this
were resorted to, it would be neces-
sary only to prove the letters were
symbols recording chances on a lot
terry. which probably would be NO
harder to establish than it is to con-
meet a group of numbers with the
widespread game.
The bill does not mention the num-
bers racket specifically, but refers to
lotteries and policy games. The courts
have held that numbers game is a
lottery.
The new law. is an amendment to
the District lottery statute. The prin-
cipal change is the provision making
possession of numbers slips prima
facie evidence of violating the law,
Hitherto the authorities have had to
prove sale" of chance on number
to obtain a conviction.
Records as Evidence.
The important amendment drafted
by United States Attorney David A.
Pine makes records of numbers bets
or the original slips collected for the
backers-also evidence of setting up
or conducting a lottery. This is ex-
pected to press the racketeers hard
Previous court decisions have held that
under the present law lottery ticket
was only the receipt retained by the
player, not the original slip kept by
the sponsor of the game.
The new law faces hackers Of the
numbers racket with penalties up to
81 900 fine and three years imprison-
ment. Its adoption by Congress ends
fight of three years to strengthen
the District laws against commercial
gambling.