Around the same time, Buddy McLean began forming a gang in Somerville, Massachusetts to, among other criminal activities, run numbers. This would become the Winter Hill Gang. By the 1970s, the Winter Hill Gang, then led by Whitey Bulger, moved bookies under its protection away from the numbers game to sports betting, as the state was starting its own lottery, and the National Football League did not allow betting on its games outside of Nevada; thereby Massachusetts could not compete with them. Despite the creation of the state lottery, however, the numbers game's demise in Massachusetts was not immediate, as the state lottery had a lower payout and was taxed.