Major Illegal Gambling Ring Busted in New Jersey

The obvious answer is that the numbers game has always paid significantly better odds than legal lotteries.

New Jersey and New York law enforcement officials combined to arrest over 20 suspects in an illegal gambling operation that spanned the two states. In a return to the numbers rackets of days gone past, runners collected small bets from hundreds of locations, including bodegas and convenience stores, and computers kept count and verified winers.

Juan Francisco Fernandez was identified as the potential mastermind of the operation, and police found a large sum of cash hidden in a secret compartment in his house in Westchester. Fernandez has a history as a law enforcement officer in the Dominican Republic.

All told, the bust netted authorities over $450,000, as well as ticketing machines and computers.

"These people were doing roughly $100,000 to $200,000 a week," Passaic County Prosecutor James Avigliano said.

Detectives indicated as many as a hundred locations might have been used for dropoffs and pickups.

Some may wonder why gamblers would prefer to play the numbers rather than a perfectly legal lottery, and how such a ring could build business with state-owned legal competition. The obvious answer is that the numbers game has always paid significantly better odds than legal lotteries.

While the state often keeps half or more before paying out, racketeers often return 80% to 90% on a play. So, while the government declaims its concern for the potential abuse of poor, misguided gamblers by organized crime, it is still the state that heartlessly rips off the gambler. As usual, morality is only a cover for greed, and government is the greediest of all.