Holstein was also one of a number of patrons to creatives during the Renaissance and assisted in financing the NAACP’s Crisis paper. He would use some of his wealth for charities and causes in Harlem, Liberia, and the Virgin Islands. This, in turn, meant more money.ĭuring the Harlem Renaissance and as Prohibition started, Casper Holstein started to rake in thousands of dollars–which eventually grew to millions. Holstein’s system did the same but allowed for a larger pool of gamblers and less fear of bet-fixing. With a smaller pool of numbers and a straightforward procedure, Matthews could easily skew the results in his favor and keep the number of winners low. Matthews’ system proved simplistic but allowed for obvious bet-fixing. Matthews who established the lottery system used in Harlem. Instead of applying himself there, he took that approach and used it in something more immediately marketable in Harlem. Holstein paid close attention to how the stock market worked. It was his work as a head messenger on Wall Street that allowed Casper Holstein to hip his toes into organized crime. After the Navy, he returned to New York City where he worked as a janitor, doorman, and messenger. Born in the Danish West Indies in late 1876, Casper Holstein and arrived in New York City in 1894 and would find the American Dream in his own way.ĭuring World War I, Holstein was stationed in his birth country of the U.S. For most of those immigrants, there was prejudice and push back, the America Dream manifested in different ways and sometimes not at all. during the 19th century, the country was the beacon of hope and a better life. St Clair took the leading role in the fight against the takeover of numbers by white gangster Dutch Schultz, pushing her case in the black press as well as through violence.For many immigrants to the U.S. A native of Martinique who spoke with a French accent, she lived in 409 Edgecombe Avenue, an address favored by civil rights luminaries and other members of Harlem society. Stephanie St Clair was the leading, and perhaps only, numbers queen. Stephanie St Clair, under arrest for shooting her husband, 1938 (Corbis) A Cuban banker, Alex Pompez, played the most prominent role in baseball, owning a team called the New York Cubans and supporting the Negro National League, before becoming a scout for the Giants and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. One of the few ways that Holstein did not spend his money was on sports, but other kings promoted boxers and, most notably, operated baseball teams. He gave money to charities and loans to aspiring businessmen. Holstein was also a key supporter of the Harlem Renaissance, “a great help to poor poets,” as Langston Hughes put it. He gave generously to support Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association, and his native Virgin Islands. He was a committed member of the Monarch Lodge of the Elks, even running unsuccessfully to be the fraternal order’s national leader. However, unlike most kings, he did not live a flamboyant lifestyle. He owned a fleet of cars, apartment buildings in Harlem and a home on Long Island, and acres of land in the Virgin Islands. The most successful numbers king was almost certainly the reputed inventor of the game, Casper Holstein, a native of the Virgin Islands. Casper Holstein outside Washington Heights Court, 1928 (New York Daily News) He displayed the ostentatious style that would become a hallmark of the kings and queens, driving up and down Lenox Avenue in a chauffeur-driven limousine, and living in a palace of an apartment, adorned with imported chandeliers and a baby grand piano. The first banker to achieve enough success to be called a numbers king was a Cuban named Marcellino, who controlled much of the gambling by Spanish-speakers. The most successful bankers earned the label King or Queen. Huge sums could be made operating numbers, but a popular number hitting could also quickly wipe out a banker, although, notoriously, they often avoided that fate by simply refusing to pay out, or offering players reduced payouts. As early as May 1924, the New York Age estimated that there were at least 30 bankers in Harlem, many of them Cuban, and many employing between 12 and 20 collectors. The most successful bankers were known as Kings and Queens. The men and women who operated the numbers game were known as bankers.
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