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Bolita
Bolita ( Spanish for ''Little Ball'') is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian, and black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small numbered balls are placed into a bag and mixed thoroughly, and bets are taken on which number will be drawn. Many variations on this theme were created. Bets were typically very small and sometimes sold well in advance, and the game could be rigged, by having extra balls of a given number or not including others at all. Other means of cheating included having certain balls filled with lead so they would sink to the bottom of the bag, or putting certain balls in ice beforehand so they would be cold and therefore easy for the selector to find by touch. Over time, Hispanics developed a name for each number in a system called La Charada or Las Charadas, creating a superstitious method for interpreting game outcomes or placing bets, many times in a ...
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Bolita Balls
Bolita (Spanish language, Spanish for ''Little Ball'') is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian American, Italian, and African American, black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small numbered balls are placed into a bag and mixed thoroughly, and bets are taken on which number will be drawn. Many variations on this theme were created. Bets were typically very small and sometimes sold well in advance, and the game could be rigged, by having extra balls of a given number or not including others at all. Other means of cheating included having certain balls filled with lead so they would sink to the bottom of the bag, or putting certain balls in ice beforehand so they would be cold and therefore easy for the selector to find by touch. Over time, Hispanics developed a name for each number in a system called La Charada or Las Charadas, creating a superstitious method for interpr ...
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Casper Holstein
Casper Holstein (December 6, 1877 – April 5, 1944) was a prominent New York mobster involved in the Harlem " numbers rackets" during the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Born of mixed African and Danish descent in St. Croix, Danish West Indies, Casper Holstein moved to New York City with his mother in 1884. During World War I, he was able to revisit his birthplace while stationed in what had become the United States Virgin Islands. After the war, Holstein worked as janitor and doorman in Manhattan eventually becoming a messenger, and then head messenger. Rebirth of the Harlem numbers racket As the Prohibition began, Holstein's lottery system proved popular and soon Holstein became known as the " Bolita King", going on to earn an estimated $2 million from his lotteries. In 1932 Dixie Davis, the court house attorney who provided service for the runners for many of the numbers operators, decided that he could make more money if he were to take over as central organizer. ...
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Tampa, Florida
Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the county seat of Hillsborough County, Florida, Hillsborough County. With an estimated population of 403,364 in 2023, Tampa is the List of United States cities by population, 49th-most populous city in the country and the List of municipalities in Florida, third-most populous city in Florida after Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville and Miami. Tampa was founded as a military center in the 19th century, with the establishment of Fort Brooke. The cigar industry was brought to Tampa by Vicente Martinez Ybor, Vincente Martinez Ybor, after whom Ybor City is named. Tampa was reincorporated as a city in 1887 following the American Civil War, Civil War. Tampa's economy is driven by tourism, health care, finance, insurance, technology, construction ...
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Trafficante Crime Family
The Trafficante crime family, also known as the Tampa crime family or the Tampa Mafia, is an Italian Americans, Italian-American American Mafia, Mafia crime family based in Tampa, Florida. The most notable boss of the family was Santo Trafficante Jr. who ruled Tampa and the crime family with an iron fist. Author Scott Deitche reported that Santo Jr. was involved with the Central Intelligence Agency to plot assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. After the death of Santo Jr. in 1987, the Tampa Mafia family has been controlled by Vincent LoScalzo. History Early underworld bosses in Tampa During the early 1920s, Charlie Wall created an organized crime syndicate in Tampa, where he controlled a large number of illegal gambling rackets and corrupted many Tampa government officials through bribery. Wall controlled his organization from the Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City, Tampa, Florida, Ybor City, and employed Italians, Cubans and men of other ethnicities in his organization. His only ...
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Numbers Game
The numbers game, also known as the numbers racket, the Italian lottery, Mafia lottery, or the daily number, is a form of illegal gambling or illegal lottery played mostly in poor and working-class neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. For many years the "number" has been the last three digits of "the handle", the amount race track bettors placed on race day at a major racetrack, published in racing journals and major newspapers in New York. In the loosest sense of the word “ racket”, the numbers game is a common racket or ongoing criminal scheme among organized crime groups, especially in the United States. Gamblers place bets with a bookmaker ("bookie") at a tavern, bar, barber shop, social club, or any other semi-private place that acts as an illegal betting parlor. Runners carry the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, ca ...
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Florida Lottery
The Florida Lottery is the government-operated lottery of the U.S. state of Florida. , the lottery offers eleven terminal-generated games: Cash4Life, Mega Millions, Powerball, Florida Lotto, Pick 2, Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Fantasy 5, Cash Pop, and Jackpot Triple Play. Participants must be 18 or older to play. The lottery was established through efforts by Governor Bob Martinez and the Florida legislature to generate revenue for public education in Florida. The lottery's first game, the $1 scratch-off Millionaire, was launched in 1988. In 2012, Florida was the third-ranked state in yearly lottery revenue with $4.45 billion; revenue passed $5 billion in fiscal year 2013. History The Florida Lottery began operation on January 12, 1988, by order of a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters in the general election of November 4, 1986. The lottery was established to generate additional funding for public education in Florida, with a significant portion ...
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Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution () was the military and political movement that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, who had ruled Cuba from 1952 to 1959. The revolution began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état, in which Batista overthrew the emerging Cuban democracy and consolidated power. Among those who opposed the coup was Fidel Castro, then a young lawyer, who initially tried to challenge the takeover through legal means in the Cuban courts. When these efforts failed, Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro, Raúl led an armed Attack on the Moncada Barracks, assault on the Moncada Barracks, a Cuban military post, on 26 July 1953. Following the attack's failure, Fidel Castro and his co-conspirators were arrested and formed the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) in detention. At his trial, Fidel Castro launched into a History Will Absolve Me, two-hour speech that won him national fame as he laid out his grievances against the Batista dictatorship. In an attempt to win pub ...
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Miami
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a population of 6.14 million, is the second-largest metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States, Southeast after Atlanta metropolitan area, Atlanta, and the Metropolitan statistical area#United States, ninth-largest in the United States. With a population of 442,241 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Miami is the List of municipalities in Florida, second-most populous city in Florida, after Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville. Miami has the List of tallest buildings in the United States#Cities with the most skyscrapers, third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over List of tallest buildings in Miami, 300 high-rises, 70 of which exceed . Miami is a major center and leader in finance, commerce, culture, arts, and internation ...
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Santo Trafficante, Jr
Santo ('saint' in various languages) may refer to: People * Santo (given name) * Santo (surname) * El Santo, Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (1917–1984), Mexican wrestler and actor * Bob Santo or Santo, stage name of Ghanaian comedian John Evans Kwadwo Bosompem (1940–2002) * Ferdinand III of Castile (1200–1252) called "''el Santo''" ("the Saint") Places * Santo, Ouest, Haiti, a village * Santō, Shiga, Japan, a town *Santo, Texas, United States, an unincorporated community *Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua, Italy, known locally as ''il Santo'' *Espiritu Santo, the largest island of Vanuatu, nicknamed Santo **Luganville, known locally as Santo Arts and entertainment *Santo (art), a wooden or ivory statue depicting a holy figure * ''Santo'' (EP), by Alonso Brito, 2008 * "Santo" (song), by Christina Aguilera, 2022 *"Santo", a song by Ely Buendia * ''Il Santo'' (novel), Antonio Fogazzaro, 1905 See also * * *Los Santos (other) *Santos (other) *Santa (disambiguati ...
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Italian-American Mafia
The American Mafia, commonly referred to in North America as the Italian-American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian-American criminal society and organized crime group. The terms Italian Mafia and Italian Mob apply to these US-based organizations, as well as the separate yet related Sicilian Mafia or other organized crime groups in Italy, or ethnic Italian crime groups in other countries. These organizations are often referred to by its members as Cosa Nostra (, "Our Thing" or "This Thing of Ours") and by the American government as La Cosa Nostra (LCN). The organization's name is derived from the original ''Mafia'' or ''Cosa Nostra'', the Sicilian Mafia, with "American Mafia" originally referring simply to Mafia groups from Sicily operating in the United States. The Mafia in the United States emerged in impoverished Italian immigrant neighborhoods in New York's East Harlem (or " Italian Harlem"), the Lower East Side, and Brooklyn; also emerging in o ...
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