Bootlegging, interestingly, began before Prohibition, and actually continued after it, as a means of bypassing high taxes on alcohol. Without tax, bootleg liquor was sold much cheaper than legal alcohol. By 1930, bootlegging was much more efficiently organized, thanks to criminals who turned the operations into a full-fledged illicit industry. By that year, it was estimated that 10,000 speakeasies were operating. In Chicago, hundreds of bars that were supposed to close simply stayed open after Prohibition became law. There were innumerable "blind pigs," bars and saloons with blank fronts (unmarked with any indication of their function), through which one entered a SIDE DOOR... 

 

http://www.repealday.org/