> Although illegal, Bridgett said that “running numbers” wasn’t seen as bad within the black community. It allowed many black businesses to be funded, provided jobs, and helped many financially — her family included. “[The] NAACP, that really important black organization that's been around forever, they were funded in the early years by numbers men and women, that numbers money,” Bridgett said. “So it was circulating throughout the community and those dollars were turning over a lot. And that keeps a community thriving. Because you know if you hit the number and you have some extra money, maybe you'll go to Sarah's beauty shop and basically get your hair done a little more often.”

Classic broken windows fallacy. Everyone who lost would get their hair done a little less often at Sarah's beauty shop, and then you have the large cut which made it so profitable to run and expenses like bribes...