I am from Russia, but live in Italy (Milan).

I understand what you are saying, but the question is: does racketeering ALWAYS imply extortion or are there crimes which constitute racketeering without committing extortion? Because the rackets seem to always imply paying money to solve a problem, and if you don't pay, the problems will continue, therefore it's always a threat, veiled or not. So I don't understand why lottery ticket frauds are sometimes called "rackets" since they don't constitute extortion, the person isn't threatened with possible "problems" he/she would have if he doesn't buy the ticket.

The confusion of me understanding the difference is probably caused by the wrong use of the word "racketeer" in Russian. In Russian there is the word "vymogatel" (extortionist), and the english word "racketeer" was adopted in the language and used as a complete synonym of that, probably modifying some connotations the word has in English.