The stain of the Black Sox fiasco ultimately did nothing to deter the public’s growing zest for sports wagering. During the two decades between the world wars, betting on sports continued to grow. In fact, by focusing attention on the phenomenon, baseball’s greatest scandal seemed to intensify interest in sports betting among the American people.
The number of gamblers and the estimates of amount wagered grew steadily, despite strong opposition from politicians, journalists, religious spokespeople, and assorted other reformers. Despite various efforts to curtail gambling of all types, observers concluded that millions of new Americans were now getting down their bets with their local bookies. Americans were obviously not only betting more doing so on a much wider spectrum of sporting events.
Essential to the growth of gambling during the years between the world wars was the upsurge in the number of illegal bookies. Although these individuals were frequently mentioned in the news, little documentation about them and their enterprises exists today.
Many of the leading gambling figures who dominated the field from the 1930s to the 1960s got their start in bootlegging during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. They were often descendants of the large influx of immigrants from eastern and central Europe between 1880 and 1914.
Although popular stereotypes suggest that the great majority were of Italian ancestry, the evidence is that at least as many gambling leaders were of eastern European Jewish immigrant enclaves in large northeastern and Midwestern cities.
