Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bootlegging.

1938		D. Runyon ‘Three Wise Guys’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 399: There is no money in booting anymore.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Madame La Gimp’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 253: Judge Henry G. Blake figures to do a little booting on his own hook in and out of Canada.