This week, I learned about The Numbers.

The Numbers is a local lottery game played in many communities.
Sometimes it’s called bolita. Sometimes the lottery. But usually,
just the numbers.

You can play a number straight. This way, you only win if the exact
number comes out.

You can box it. This way, you win if your numbers come out in any
combination (i.e. 781, 718, 871, 781)

Or – you can parlay it. (Sometimes this is called a “pairs bet”.)
This way, you play X81 – anything ending in 81 you win. Or 78X and
anything starting in 78, you win.

The numbers come out at least once a day, sometimes more.

Dream books all say something different. One book may say “You dream
of snakes? Play 683”, another may say “Play 932.”

You can look up your name – or someone else’s – in a Dream Book and it
will give you a number to play.

You can play the number of a body part (some dream books have charts for that).

Some dream books are published each year and have a lucky number for each day.

You can look up your birthday and see what numbers (or days of the
week are lucky for you). (For me – Saturdays are good. So are
January and October.) Some dream books also do horoscopes.

Sometimes the winning number is tied to the horse race. Some say the
stock market. But really, you know you won when the numbers runner
tells you you won.

Some people say you shouldn’t waste your money on the numbers. But
when you can bet a dime and maybe win a few bucks…. why not?

photo credit: vicie rolling