Bets Off

It was a bleak week for New York bookmakers:

P: Gambler Harry Gross, 34, decided the jig was up. His old employees had spilled details of his $20 million-a-year bookmaking business (TIME, Oct. 9), were beginning to tell all about his tie-up with New York cops. (Semimonthly protection payments were so big "it took two men to carry the money.") In a Brooklyn court, dapper Harry Gross pleaded guilty to 66 counts of bookmaking and conspiracy for which he could be fined $33,500, thrown into jail for 68 years. Said one of Harry's boys bitterly: "Harry's taking the rap for the whole city and I don't mean the cops only."

P: Gambler Frank Erickson, 56, serving two years in jail on bookmaking charges (TIME, July 3), got a bill from the U.S. Government for back taxes, interest and penalties between 1937-46. The bill: $2,258,349.91. The Government slapped a lien on three Erickson real-estate corporations, just to make sure that the ex-king of the U.S. bookmakers paid up.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.