Mobsters will lose ‘core business’ thanks to legal sports betting: experts
By Bruce Golding
New York Post
May 14, 2018
The mob’s gambling racket is about to sleep with the fishes.
The US Supreme Court’s sports-betting ruling dealt a losing hand to organized crime in the New York area, legal experts said Monday.
Gambling and loan-sharking have traditionally been the mob’s “bread and butter,” and the decision will “significantly reduce” its clientele, former federal prosecutor Thomas Seigel said.
“They will definitely lose a regular source of predictable income,” said Seigel, who ran the Organized Crime and Gangs Section of the Brooklyn US Attorney’ s Office.
Defense lawyer John Meringolo, who’s represented John “Junior” Gotti and reputed Philadelphia mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, said legal sports betting “will have a detrimental effect on the mob and anyone who tries to make a living through this type of vice.”
“For what’s left of what they do, this would significantly hurt their bottom line, if not completely destroy it,” said Meringolo, also a Pace Law School professor.
“If there’s no gambling, there’s no core business.”
Seigel — who prosecuted crooked NBA referee Tim Donaghy on gambling charges — said he expected mobsters would come up with new scams, potentially involving crypto-currencies in an “analog to the penny stocks of the ’90s.”
“I wouldn’t fully count them out, because they are resilient, but it is definitely going to be a blow,” he said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: When New York legalized off-track betting, bookies actually saw a significant increase in customers because, unlike the legal betting shops, they took bets on the cuff once they got to know the bettor.
1 comment:
The Mafia is still out there doing their thing. Chop shops, insurance scams, loan sharking, prostitution, blackmail, and protection from themselves is their stock in trade. They are very versatile and will even make money legally. I wouldn't count them out of anything that could turn a buck.
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