> Speaking of gambling, can someone explain the numbers
racket to me?
> Did people really just pick a number and wait for
someone, somewhere,
> to tell them that their number had won? It sounds
even stupider than
> slot machines.
I have a dictionary definition of the numbers game:
numbers game _or_ racket n. US An illegal lottery in
which money is wagered on a certain combination of
digits appearing at the beginnnig of a series of
numbers
published in a newspaper, as in share prices or sports
results. Often shortened to numbers.
Collins English Dictionary,
third edition, updated (HarperCollins: Glasgow, 1994).
Eddie Duggan
BTW, Kathy, thanks for the answer to 'stuss games'---the same
dictionary
tells me faro is 'a gambling game in which players bet
against the
dealer on what cards he will turn up. [C18: probably spelling
variant of
Pharoh]
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