Modern times have also crippled extortion. Flashback to that sopranos episode where Patsy goes in trying to extort a Starbucks, wont work when you have all these corporate chains engulfing the whole Phlly area. Youre not gonna be able to go into a TGI Fridays, a Best Buy, some bagel shop based out of Ohio etc and extort protection money from a faceless owner.
Well the mob never really went after those national chains anyway. Unless you're talking about the indirect extortion of all businesses through inflated prices in the mob-controlled garbage industry up through much of the 1990's.
But, as recent cases in New York, Chicago, and New England have shown, adult business like strip clubs and porn shops are still favorites to be extorted by the mob. And in New York, extortion of companies in certain industries, like construction, the waterfront, etc., through the unions is still a problem.
