Seligman Swartzman Gillis Sandman Joffe Yachad Lederman Fleishman

A punchboard is a game board, primarily consisting of a number of holes, which was used once for lottery playings. In the late 1800s, a new type of punchboard was introduced. This one involved putting paper in both the front and back of the hole (to help prevent operators from cheating). These new punchboards became popular to buy at drugstores, and they were sold with a metal stylus. The punchboard soon became increasingly similar to today's lottery tickets. Soon, the punchboard became cheap and easy to assemble, and the industry flourished. Noted gambling author John Scarne estimates that 30 million punchboards were sold in the years between 1910 to 1915. He also estimates that 50 million punchboards were sold in 1939 alone, during the peak of their popularity. [edit] After World War II After World War II, use of the punchboard as a gambling tool began to decline because many people started to frown at its gambling-like nature, and the punchboard was outlawed in many states. However, the use of punchboards for advertisement were starting to gain popularity. Many companies started hiding goods such as bottles of beer and cigarettes inside punchboards. Zippo lighters reportedly sold more than 300,000 lighters through punchboard advertising between 1934 and 1940. [edit] Larceny People have been cheating on punchboards ever since they were first invented. Many operators know where the big prize holes are; they used to create punchboards with very few holes so they could easily track the big money. Other gamblers could make a dirty deal with the customers: give the customer a "map" of where the big prizes are on the punchboard. This came to prevention by the use of serial numbers: the customer would present the slip to the operator, and if the serial numbers matched, the customer was declared a winner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punchboard "Investigation of organized crime in interstate commerce. Hearings before a Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-first Congress, second session, pursuant to S. Res. 202 .." July 11, 1950 The Chairman. Give us not only the names of the manufacturers, but the names of the operators and officers and the operators of these operations. Maybe you want to ask detailed questions about each company. Mr. ROBiNSON. That is all right. I wanted to go into that, Mr. Chairman, first, with the listing of the names of the major manufacturers and their owners and the places of distribution, and so forth, and the volume of business, if you have it. Mr. Brooktield. Senator, some of them I can give you, the ones I have, which, I think, are all the principal ones. The Chairman. All right. Mr. Brooktield. Not in any specific order, the Globe Cardboard Novelty Co., in New York. The Chairman. Mr. Robinson, while you are on each one of these, do you want to ask specifically about them ? Mr. Robinson. All right. Do you know who the owner of that com- pany is ? Mr. Brooktield. At the present time, Louis Broudo is the principal owner. There was a Mr. Morris Aaron, who was in that company, but I am told he has sold out to Mr. Broudo. Mr. Robinson. Now, they are manufacturers exclusively of punchboards, or do they manufacture any allied products ? Mr. Brooktield. They manufacture punchboards and punchcards. I don't know of anything else they manufacture. Mr, Robinson. Do you know what their volume of business is, roughly ? Mr. Brookfield. No, but I would say that they are among the six biggest anyway. Mr. Robinson. I see. Do you know where they distribute ? Do they distribute entirely in New York State? Mr. Brooktield. Oh, no, in every State. Mr. Robinson. Or all over the country ? Mr. Brooktield. Oh, no. You will find Globe punchboards in practically every State of the Union. Mr. Robinson. All right. The Chairman. You say their volume of business is in six figures anyway ? Mr. Brooktield. Half a million or The Chairman. I mean, do you think it is half a million or a million ? Mr. Brooktield. Probably at the present time between a half and a million. The reason I am not familiar with the present activity of this company is because of the case I had against them which was some 3, 4, 5 years ago when I took the testimony. The Chairman. Who is this Louis Broudo ? Mr. Brooktield. He is a resident of Philadelphia. The Globe Card- board Novelty Co., which is the Globe Printing Co. also, was formerly located in Philadelphia. When the Pennsylvania law against the manufacture of punchboards was passed, they moved to New York City their manufacturing operations. Broudo is still in Philadelphia. .... http://www.archive.org/stream/investigationofo12unit/investigationofo12unit_djvu.txt