Charlie Ed Craddock’s Hotel Eggmont building at Ashley & Jefferson streets, was considered to be the home of the bolita big house in 1936. | Ritz Theatre & Museum
Bolita (Spanish for Little Ball), was a type of illegal lottery gambling popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida’s working class Hispanic, Italian, and Black residents. Bolita came to Tampa’s Ybor City in the 1880s. By the 1940s, the game was taken over by Tampa mafia boss Santo Trafficante, Sr.
Bolita was big business in Jacksonville’s Black neighborhoods. Estimated at a total of $500 million gambled on the game annually, it may have been Jacksonville’s most profitable illegal business by the Great Depression. In town, the business was controlled by the Trafficante connected James “Charlie Ed” Craddock. Craddock’s clubs, bars and taverns were protected by the local police, mayor and other city officials. Also the owner of Jacksonville’s famed Two Spot night club, Craddock was so successful that in 1942, he paid the federal government $35,000 in back taxes.
In 1936, bolita stations in LaVilla were located at Raymond’s Place at Ashley & Jefferson streets, Machin’s Place at Beaver and Davis streets and Manuel’s Tap Room. Raymond was said to be the son of a former cigar manufacturer, drove around in a Packard coupe. Manuel Rivera, who was known to park his long green Auburn outside, had two guards that were never that far away. There were also two bolita stations Out East on Florida Avenue (A. Philip Randolph Boulevard), including Machin’s East Side at Florida Avenue and First Street.
The bolita big house in 1936. | University of Florida
Thanks to @uflib for sharing some #Jax history during a recent Gainesville research trip.