Smallest, like 10-12 regular customers. Biggest 500. 30 something agents. He was based in bergen county. Not connected in the least. Id say 90% of these guys dont get busted. The perna book? The one they arrested like 40 guys? A book that takes in the numbers theyre claiming will have a thousand agents. Easy. They only got the connected guys and the bloods. Some guys are just 70 yr old men that say my phones open from 12-6. Do everything on credit. Never change their lines..,,.. Some guys the opposite with agents. The agents may get shaken down or be with a crew but thats just them. By knowing an agent doesnt mean u can get to the office. Not all agents know the controllers. Levels of buffers in between. Works like a charm. Even if a agent knows his boss close enough to set him up, would he do that to a guy who gave him a job? The office can quit taking his sheets action and hes out of business. The media/cops drum up the connected shit for headlines. They go after them the same, imo, but most indy locals dont have lots of heat on them like a crew run book would. If ur just a book with say a dozen agents, say 80-90 customers, ur taking around 10-15m yr in action, keeping say 2-3% on average.... Big money yes? Say theres a gambino crew, set up exact same, same figures, number of agents, exactly. The latter arent just agents, theyre loan sharks, shooters, dealers, hustlers, plus they are Gambinos. Theres more that attracts heat on them, not most Independent guys. Not trying to say i know everything, just saying.
The extreme differences in what we've seen in cases going back more than a decade now shows truly independent operations are very much the exception to the rule. Especially big ones. And again, I'm talking about in those areas where the mob still has a significant presence. Sure, there may be a lot of individual agents taking bets who never rub shoulders with the mob. But the higher up the ladder you go, this seems to be much less the case.
there's alot of land in the south suburbs and enough action to have a crew
Maybe the South Side/26th Street crew has some guys there but there isn't another crew based there, according to the FBI.
Because, believe it or not, the Feds tend to focus on Italian American bookmaking offices at least ten times as much as they focus on the non-italians. It makes for better press releases. And you know I'm no apologist. I hardly ever play the "Forever Bothering Italians" card. But what's right is right.
Gypsy bookmakers (and by Gypsy I just mean independent, it's in no way ethnic) have existed in New York for YEARS. It's nothing new. That street tax bullshit is so overhyped it's ridiculous.
Most of the mob connected guys that you're talking about have even layed off to the gypsies over the years. Because when you're a busy office, at the end of the day it's better to have a reliable out at five to one on Sunday afternoon than to shake a guy down for $200 a week. It's just better business. Forget all that "every bookmaker pays" nonsense.
I could certainly believe law enforcement focuses more on the Italian-American bookies because of the Mafia connection. But that still wouldn't explain the extreme lack of non-Mafia/Italian bookmaking busts. People can talk about various exceptions they know of, and I take no issue with them on an individual basis, because I'm talking about the collective big picture. And the big picture, at least shown by indictments, is the illegal sports betting business in the Tri-State area, in much of the rest of the Northeast, and in Chicago is still very much connected to the LCN. But that comes in various forms, i.e. some operations being run directly by the LCN, others laying off to the LCN, others paying a street tax, etc.
The NW Indiana rackets that were run by guys like Snookie Morgano were taken over by others...including the Guzzo brothers. I know there are guys still operating in the heights...Michael Giorango's brother Joe being one of them. I'm not sure if they are a designated "crew" or an extension of Toots Caruso's territory or not. Anthony Calabrese was also a guy from the Heights.
Do yourself a favor Cook and ignore those who feel the need to weigh-in on everything, even when most of their posts are glanced over at this point.
I don't weigh in on everything. And, like I said above, there very well may be some guys operating there. Just not an actual standing crew. Anthony Calabrese, for example, answered to Jimmy Inendino.
So True!! It works the same way in Philly and I am sure Chi town and whereever else. Some of The independents are some of the biggest books. You can search my posts. Ive talked about this before.
I'd ask you and the others for examples of these big independents but I'm guessing I won't get any. Funny how it always seems to work that way, huh?
Again, one can certainly bring up certain
exceptions to the rule. For instance, the Mastronardos. But even they were laundering money with a Genovese guy in Florida.
He will never "Trust You" on this one. He will argue until it hurts. If he can't read it, it didn't happen.
When I have people (such as yourself) lying about what they really know, I pretty much have to be sceptical, don't I?
The only Italians in Ivy's home state of Utah are those in the "program." Ivy you need to start finding these guys instead of sitting on your computer all day...you can start your own little Italy!
Given how information is so widely available in this day and age, one could never meet a single Italian and still know everything they need to about the mob. You can keep pretending that knowledge is based on where you live, how much pasta you eat, or whatever but not many people are buying that old line of BS anymore.
