In America anything and everything was second to gambling for the Mafia, since it is all legalized now that has shrunk tremendously. They have modernized by going into legitimate busineses for the most part. Their time is over and I think it has been over for a while.
You are 100% correct Jace. First bootlegging, then later gambling was the hub of the wheel that turned everything else. Without gambling the remaining 'wiseguys' out there today are floundering.
And on that note any real 'wiseguys' know that fact very well. The only ones left in the street fooling around today are the 'dumbguys' who are either too young or too stupid, or both, to have learned that lesson from their elders and the mob's prior history.
The legalizing of nearly every 'vice' that was once their base businesses, as well as the RICO laws and other legislation that has slammed down on them in recent decades is TRULY what had destroyed (past tenses here) the mafia.
Plenty of racketeers, but no rackets left to run, does NOT make a Mafia!
Its' OVER! ..... But the last of the Mohicans out there today just don't know it yet. But they'll have a lot of time to ponder that reality when they're sitting in a jail cell, which is exactly what awaits anyone who continues to fool around in the streets.
