I even find some of those numbers, like the ones in the billions, to be obscene if we're talking about total wagers. thats crazy to me.
I am hesitant to take them at face value as well. Even just one billion dollars in total bets (not just profits) would require some crazy combination of bettors, the most even distribution being something like roughly 32,000 gamblers betting 32,000 dollars each. Think of the logistics behind that.
Now, if the wagering were done on the internet with computers somehow, really huge quantities of bettors over a massive geographic area (made possible by the internet and some kind of gambling software) would be feasible I guess.
probably the american mob is close to 20 billions a year at most
heck no, i would say DEF less than $1B and prob
less than $100 million... Now I think you're going too far in the other direction. $100 million would only require every member and associate to have profits of about $15,000 - $20,000 per year. No one would join the mob if the pay were that crappy.
About $1 billion a year for every member and associate combined is probably a pretty safe estimate.
