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Fewer Illegal Gambling Arrests Made

UNITED STATES – As reported by the ABC News: "…Police departments nationwide dramatically have cut the number of arrests they make for unlicensed lotteries, sports-related wagering and other illicit betting activities. Gambling arrests reported to the FBI have declined from 21,000 in 1996 to slightly less than 11,000 two years ago.

"Five big-city police departments with full-time vice squads made more than half of the reported gambling arrests in 2002, the most recent year for which complete information is available from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. Police departments in Chicago and New York City, together, accounted for 42 percent of all gambling arrests.

"…Chicago led the nation with 2,317 arrests, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of FBI computer files. A fifth of the nation's arrested gamblers were in the Windy City, 98 percent of whom were black and 25 percent of whom were juveniles.

"…New York was second with 1,951 arrests.

"…However, the two cities reported entirely different profiles for the kinds of people arrested for illegal gambling. Just 42 percent of people arrested in New York were black and only 4 percent were children. About 11 percent were female, in sharp contrast to Chicago's report that only 2 percent of gambling arrests were made against women.

"New York led the nation in making 219 arrests for illegal lottery operations, the so-called 'numbers racket' that was long a staple of organized crime…"

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