In Chapter Six, Malcolm describes the Harlem underworld and how he finally became a part of it after being fired from Small’s. The chapter opens with a discussion of the numbers racket, which the white gangsters called “the nigger pool” because most of the players were blacks. It was a well-organized racket but based upon a very simple operation. The “numbers” are the last three figures of the daily total U.S. domestic and foreign sales; the goal is to guess these numbers. The odds against doing so are one thousand to one, and a “hit” pays off at six hundred to one. So the bettor stands to make a large profit, but those who operate the racket make a tremendous profit. It is a game of pure chance and that is one of its main attractions: because no skill is involved, anyone can win at it (though few actually do).