Dictionary definition of “pea-shake house”

pea-shake house

n. an illegal lottery-style gambling joint. Subjects: Indiana, English, Gambling, Colloquial

Editorial Note: This term is specific to Indianapolis. The first cite below is related only in the mechanics of shaking the peas.

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Citations: [1983 Don Lee Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska) (Aug. 24) “Four Are Suspended For ‘Protected Claim’”: When multiple claims are made for one horse, the winner is decided by lot, with the clerk of scales and the track’s claiming agent as witnesses. The drawing procedure is called shaking the peas. When a horseman attempts to arrange a protected claim by have accomplices place claims, he is stacking the odds in his favor if multiple claims are made and the decision on horse ownership is made by the pea shake.] 1986 Phillip M. Hoose Hoosiers: Fabulous Basketball Life of Indiana (Sept. 12) p. 186 @ (Jan. 31, 2006): In the days before the Muncie game, long lines of cars formed at the Cities Service gas station at Sixteenth Street and Senate Avenue, the hub of basketball betting. Paychecks were wagered in the Chrysler and Allison factories of Indianapolis, and major sums were staked in “pea shake houses,” named for a local game, along Indiana Avenue. 1998 State of Indiana and the Speedway Police Department vs. Thomas Person (Indianapolis, Indiana) (Sept. 25) “Appeal From The Marion Superior Court, Civil Division, Room 10” (in Court of Appeals of Indiana): The evidence I heard from that police officer was that the defendant said he got the money in a pea-shake house. There’s no testimony he got it gambling, stealing it, selling drugs or any illegal activity. Being in a pea-shake house is not sufficient. 2004 City Council Rules and Public Policy Committee IndyGov (Indianapolis, Indiana) (Aug. 24) “Minutes” p. 7: There were many times that his father went to the local pea shake house and turned 25 cents into 25 dollars to support a family of nine. This is how he grew up and still today people are using ticket houses to make ends meet. There are no drugs, no alcohol, there is only illegal gambling. 2006 [Ravekid] Taking Down Words (Indianapolis, Indiana) (Sept. 13) “On The Poll: Hill Leads In The Ninth District, Kennedy And Brizzi In Dead Heat”: Once the Marion Co. Dem party gets control of all criminal justice in Marion Co., we will have a Peashakes house in every township!! The only question that is still up in the air: Will the peashake houses contain video poker? [2006 Otis (Indianapolis, Indiana) (Sept. 16) “sweet pea and vermouth”: Sweet pea and vermouth don’t report to anyone at IFD and they have absolutly no responsibilities what so ever other than to mingle and rub elbows anlong with some pea shake activities. Oh don’t gorget the 300 east.] *2006 [Joe Friday] Indy Undercover (Indianapolis, Indiana) (Nov. 8) “Does Sweet Pea kiss his mother with that mouth?”: President of the Indianapolis City-county Council, Monroe Gray. He likes to hangout in illegal gambling joints—such as the peashake house on the corner of 38th Capitol (disguised as a car wash)—while on duty as an employee of the Indianapolis Fire Department, thus the name sweet pea for Peashakes. 2007 Brendan O'Shaughnessy, Vic Ryckaert Indianapolis Star (Indiana) (Feb. 25) “Harmless fun or illegal blights?”: Four times a day, six days a week, dozens of cars converge on Gypsy’s, a pea-shake house on the Near Westside, to wait on “the shake,” the drawing of the winning numbers. 2007 Vic Ryckaert Indianapolis Star (Mar. 17) “IMPD steps up attack on gambling”: Many Hoosier Lottery games are patterned after games that have been played in pea-shake houses for years, such as selecting winning combinations of three or four numbers, pull tabs and tickets. People pay 2 cents and more to play, and a winner can collect several thousand dollars. The winning numbers are based on the numbers painted on “peas,” which are like dice but with just one number, 0-9. The peas are shaken from a container at least four times a day at each house.…Police say the pea-shakes, also known as ticket houses, and the poker clubs are magnets for drug dealers, thieves and other criminal activity.

Posted 27 Feb 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

These illegal peashake operations involve money laundering, political protection, police protection, and the cooperation of finance organizations (banks) who must hold the laundered funds.

Another description for “peashake” might be “a sign of indepth and highly placed RICO activity within the state of Indiana”.

These organizations and their enablers are going to be exposed.

by Shorebreak 02 Mar 07, 0532 GMT

I do not think that nothing is wring with the pea shake houses and they are not bothering anyone. I love the pea shake house and I do not want it to close.

by XOXOXOXOXOXO 10 Apr 08, 0411 GMT