I'm referring to a Sun Times article a few years ago that cited 1,000 machines, each of which could take in as much as $100,000 a year in profit, from which the $100 million figure came about.

It's something we'll never know. But looking at Marcello's M&M Amusement operation, he reportedly had his machines distributed in about 40 locations. He, of course, was head of the Cicero/Melrose Park crew and might have even been acting boss at one point. In any event, since the Outfit currently has 4 crews, and if one were to assume the other crews had similar sized video poker rackets, you're looking at a couple hundred locations total. Then the question comes down to how many machines in each location? 1? 2? 3? 5? It probably varies. I could see possibly a high of around 1,000 machines. But 25,000 seems way too high.



Most of the mob's sports betting business is done over the internet now. Local wire rooms, whether it be in New York or Chicago or wherever, are becoming more and more rare. The mob now utilizes phone banks and internet sites based in offshore locations in places like Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, etc. Bettors can call a toll free phone number or go to a certain internet site using a name and password to place their bets. The mob bookie can check the site or call in to see whether his players won or lost. The actual exchange of cash takes place here between the bookie and the player and the bookie usually pays a flat fee per player account to the offshore internet sites and phone banks.