Brigette Davis

Also, numbers men started insurance companies.

They started newspapers.

They bought and owned and ran hotels where black folks could stay.

You could not, as a black American, go to a Detroit hotel downtown and stay in it.

In much of the 20th century in this country, you couldn't do it.

And so Numbers Men, one in particular, he basically ran a beautiful hotel in Detroit that was for African Americans.

It was incredible.

She kept some of her loyal customers for a while, but then they started to peel off.

And here's why.

That state-run lottery did have one distinct advantage.

It had a lot of disadvantages that worked for a while for my mom.

You didn't have to pay taxes if you played with Fannie.

You could play on credit and pay once a week with Fannie.

So there were these things that were an advantage, but the big disadvantage ultimately made it impossible for her to compete.

And that is that the state lottery was able to broadcast its winning numbers on the local TV show every evening, local TV stations.

And people absolutely love to learn the winning numbers every night publicly at the same time.

And so that's when my mother really started to try to figure out what can I do.

And she came up with something.

She did.

She decided, hmm, if you can't beat them, join them.