Articles on Books, Education, Black History and HBCUs
Who Was "The Policy King"?
Posted: 2005-01-20 13:20
'Policy' is a term for an illegal gambling lottery that involves betting on numbers selected from some listing. It is sometimes called 'the numbers game' or 'the numbers racket.' An African American, Caspar Holstein, was 'The Policy King' in Harlem during the Renaissance of the 1920s. While plain people bet as little as one cent a day, Holstein took in as much as $5,000 a day. Virtually everybody played the numbers, and the large organization of sellers and runners provided extensive employment.
Holstein was born December 7, 1876, in Christiansted, St. Croix, then the Danish West Indies, now the US Virgin Islands. He came to the states as a teenager, serving in the Navy, working as a bellhop, as well as working for a wealthy white family. When they lost their money, Holstein supported them, even paying for their funerals. He also owned the Turf Club, and was active in black fraternal organizations and the New York Virgin Islands Association.
Holstein entered serious gambling when he devised a new system for determining the daily winning number. The stock clearing houses released a daily total that was published in the newspapers. In Holstein's system, the winner was certain digits of that number, a number truly random and unable to be fixed. For those who bet, the odds were 999 to 1, just enough to make enough numbers hit to keep hope alive.
Holstein was active in public life, contributing generously to worthwhile causes. He supported the Vincent Sanitorium, the nationalist Garvey Movement, and it was he who provided prizes for Opportunity magazine's literary awards – which discovered and recognized much of Harlem's young talent. On September 23, 1928, Caspar Holstein was kidnapped, apparently by white gangster Arthur Flengenheimer 'Dutch' Schultz. Holstein was forced out of Harlem's numbers game and it was taken over by a white mob.
Holstein had enough money to continue working in real estate and mortgages. When he died on April 5, 1944, more 2,000 people attended his funeral at Harlem's Memorial Baptist Church. A scholarship at the University of the Virgin Islands and a housing development in St. Croix are named in memory of 'The Policy King.'
Holstein was born December 7, 1876, in Christiansted, St. Croix, then the Danish West Indies, now the US Virgin Islands. He came to the states as a teenager, serving in the Navy, working as a bellhop, as well as working for a wealthy white family. When they lost their money, Holstein supported them, even paying for their funerals. He also owned the Turf Club, and was active in black fraternal organizations and the New York Virgin Islands Association.
Holstein entered serious gambling when he devised a new system for determining the daily winning number. The stock clearing houses released a daily total that was published in the newspapers. In Holstein's system, the winner was certain digits of that number, a number truly random and unable to be fixed. For those who bet, the odds were 999 to 1, just enough to make enough numbers hit to keep hope alive.
Holstein was active in public life, contributing generously to worthwhile causes. He supported the Vincent Sanitorium, the nationalist Garvey Movement, and it was he who provided prizes for Opportunity magazine's literary awards – which discovered and recognized much of Harlem's young talent. On September 23, 1928, Caspar Holstein was kidnapped, apparently by white gangster Arthur Flengenheimer 'Dutch' Schultz. Holstein was forced out of Harlem's numbers game and it was taken over by a white mob.
Holstein had enough money to continue working in real estate and mortgages. When he died on April 5, 1944, more 2,000 people attended his funeral at Harlem's Memorial Baptist Church. A scholarship at the University of the Virgin Islands and a housing development in St. Croix are named in memory of 'The Policy King.'
