1950's Cuba Trivia question?

I was watching "Our Man in Havana" which was filmed in Havana in the 1950's. In the film, there were signs with five digit numbers everywhere on the streets, lining street columns, on triangular hats worn by men, etc. At first I thought they might be street addresses, but they appear random and not sequential. There were no illustrations or text attached, so it does not appear to be telephone numbers or other advertisement. Just random numbers on individual signs. Does anyone know what they were?

2008-06-15T01:46:33Z

After Richard's comments, I researched the topic further and found that the book contained pictures of the signs on its cover, that 1950 lottery tickets in Havana were indeed five numbers (info thanks to Ebay), and that the lottery and lottery vendors were prevalent all over the city. I suspect that the lottery and its random numbers were to reinforce the randomness of picking out agents from a book, or life itself. SInce the evidence tends to support Richard's answer, he wil be awarded with the points. Thanks

Richard K2008-06-09T08:45:56Z

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Such an interesting question so I put on my copy to see. The movie sure makes you want to go back to Havana since the old city doesn't seem to have changed. I thought maybe they were lottery numbers but that's just supposition. I tried searching the net but no luck. Grahame Greene must have had some reason to show them.

Beardo2008-06-11T15:38:06Z

I think you may be right, Richard. There is a whole thing about lottery numbers - at least in the book.