An Offer You Couldn't Refuse

Bolita syndicate leader Harlan Blackburn, far left, was a
gambling kingpin in Polk and Orange counties in the
1950s. He is pictured here with associates in a night club.
(Florida Photographic Collection)
These days, gambling isn't the dark and seedy underworld it once was. So the battle in Broward over slots, racetracks and jai-alai isn't one of the great moral issues of our time. Nevertheless, it's an important issue, and the history of gambling in Florida is a mysterious story in which the players are unknown and plot hasn't been disclosed.

The underworld of gambling gained a stranglehold over Florida politics in the early 20th century, and many areas of the state have yet to recover. Tampa, for instance, has a mafia presence that still operates City Hall. Bob Graham's father, who had crusaded against the Miami mafia in the Legislature, carried around a gun everywhere he went. Young Bob remembers asking his father why he carried the gun, and he remembers learning about the nefarious shadows that wanted to kill his father. In the post-9/11 days of paranoid security, the senator was reminded of his youth, which was spent studiously avoiding the mob.

At some point, Florida's gambling underworld settled upon a game of choice: bolita. Today, bolita is all but unknown. But the game, which resembles a lottery played with 100 ivory balls, once gripped Florida in a vice. Less than reputable salons in Ybor City would drill lead into some balls, remove certain numbers, add duplicates of other numbers and freeze the balls so they would be an obvious selection for the person who would have been seriously threatened if he chose the wrong ball.

All of this makes it obvious why a Florida State University professor was chosen to write a new novel based on the Godfather brand.

The conquistador enjoys the slots, but he isn't so keen on being ambushed by 10 mafioso with machine guns. Today's gambling world is fundamentally different from the bolita days, so perhaps the only modern problem with slots, racehorses and jai-alai is a matter of personal responsibility. As some cynical observers might say, it's a tax on the willing.