bug

n. an illegal lottery; the numbers game. Subjects: Georgia, English, Gambling

Editorial Note: This term appears to be most common in Georgia and Alabama. It often takes the definite article: the bug.

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Citations: 1936 Joseph Ator Chicago Tribune (Oct. 25) “We Bet Five Billion” p. E10: The lottery is a poor man’s game. Its operators are the slummers of the gambling industry. There are, of course, exceptions. Society women play the “bug,” as the numbers game is called in Atlanta.…Atlanta arrests an average of a hundred “bug” agents a month. 1940 Carson McCullers The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter @ (May 18, 1993): Father, that is sure one bad, wicked place. They got a man sells tickets on the bug. [1946 Cullman Banner (Ala.) (Mar. 7) “Buettners Hold Annual Teachers Banquet” p. 7: In the “Bug” game, Mrs. Donahoo won first and Mrs. Willoughby took second prize.] 1949 Dothan Eagle (Ala.) (May 21) “31 Persons Arrested by Authorities Here” p. 2: Pleading guilty to a lottery charge today was Pency Capane, Dothan Negress. The woman was arrested Saturday, along with another Negro on whom police said they found bug tickets. 1950 Ernest E. Blanche Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (May) “Lotteries Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” vol. 269, p. 74: The numbers game (known also as policy, clearing house, the bug, butter and eggs and other names) operates every day except Sunday throughout the year, players wagering anything from a penny upward on a three-digit number (000-999). 1951 Jim Thomasson @ Phenix City, Ala. Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, Mich.) (May 17) “Alabama City Tames Down” p. 11: Dice tables are covered in this robust Chattahoochee river town. Slot machines have disappeared. And if any bug tickets—lottery slips—are written, they are passed under the counter. 1959 Pharr Stubblefield v.the State 38210 (Fulton Co., Ga.) (Dec. 17) “101 Ga. App. 481; 114 SE2d 221”: If you believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did possess “bug” or lottery tickets, and that they were a part of the paraphernalia of the lottery known as the “bug” or numbers game, and the defendant thus aided, assisted and participated in the carrying on of the lottery, if one was carried on, you would be authorized to convict the defendant of this charge. 1993 Charles Walston Atlanta Constitution (Ga.) (Aug. 8) “Experts say state lotteries compete with illegal numbers games in cities” p. D5: Three-digit lottery games with daily drawings, such as the one that starts Tuesday in Georgia, are virtually identical in format to longtime illegal games—the “Bug” in Atlanta, the “Numbers” up north, and the “Bolita” among the Hispanic communities of South Florida. 1995 Bill Montgomery Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Nov. 29) “‘The bug’: Shadow of former self Numbers racket survives, but lottery has cost it players” p. B1: The illegal numbers racket known as “the bug” lives on after the murder this week of one of its one-time kingpins.

Posted 4 Nov 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend