The Bookie's Daughter by Heather Abraham Page A

for “hits” did not occur until the local paper’s data was confirmed in the next morning’s Wall Street Journal , the official authoritative voice for stock investors and bookies alike.
     
    Even as children, Vanessa and I were responsible for computing the daily numbers. The old stock number was determined by combing the last digit of the Advance, Decline, and Unchanged columns. For example, if the last number of the Advance was 5, the Decline 8, and the Unchanged 3, then the old stock winning number was 583. The computation of the “new stock” number, on the other hand, was a little more complicated. The first of the three digits was determined by the last number of the sum total of the three numbers from the “old stock.” Take our earlier example of 583. If you add these numbers together, the sum is 16. The last digit, the number 6, would then be the first number of the new stock. The second and third numbers were determined by the fifth number, counting from right to left, of the day’s volume of stock sold and the volume of bonds sold, respectively. Whew! Even today, I am amazed that my sister and I were expected to work out this complex formula, but master it we did! After Vanessa or I deciphered the winning numbers, Al or Bonnie would confirm them, and we would then post the winning numbers on the door of the store.
     
    For decades, the daily number emerged out of the chaos and dealings of Wall Street. For many bookies, this system would stand until individual states realized that in keeping gambling illegal, they were losing millions of dollars in prospective revenue.
     
    The Pennsylvania State Lottery began with the enactment of Act 91 on August 26, 1971, with revenues slated to provide property tax relief for Pennsylvania’s senior citizens. The first official lottery tickets went on sale in March of 1972, with a weekly drawing leading up to the ultimate million-dollar prize. As the official state lottery was met with enthusiasm by the general populace, bookmakers were concerned that the government lottery system would cut their profits and eventually put them out of business.
     
    Surprisingly, when the state began the daily number drawings in March of 1977, they did not match or exceed the payout given by most bookmakers, who depending on the specific bookmaker, paid between 540 and 600 to 1. With the state paying 500 to 1, bookmakers lost only a marginal amount of business. The biggest change in the system, once the state joined the game, was the source of the daily number. The state now determined the winning numbers. For numbers junkies, the daily buzz concerning the New York Stock Exchange closing became a relic of the past.
     
    With the state now the authoritative source for winning numbers, bookmakers and the public depended on the legitimacy of the State Lottery Commission. This legitimacy would soon be called into question as a scandal unfolded that rocked both the state of Pennsylvania and the underworld numbers business.
     
    To ensure transparency, the Pennsylvania Lottery Commission began the daily-televised drawing on March 1, 1977. Tuning in to watch the evening news now afforded the public with a live drawing that provided instant access to the winning numbers. Wanting to put a familiar face to the drawings, the Pennsylvania Lottery Commission eventually settled on Nick Perry, a popular Pennsylvania radio and television personality, who hosted the long-running Bowling for Dollars , as the face behind the nightly lottery drawing.
     
    Thursday, April 24, 1980 began as any other but by seven that evening, bookies in the know were in a gleeful uproar over the realization that the state’s daily number had been “fixed.” Up before dawn for a prearranged trip to Pittsburgh to collect merchandise for the store, Al and I returned in time for me to make the morning school bus. That afternoon, as I emerged from school, I discovered Big John waiting in the parking lot. A long-time employee