I can believe legal forms of gambling have cut into the illegal numbers, card games, and video poker business. But sports bookmaking seems to be as big as ever for the mob and they, especially the smaller remaining families like Philadelphia, depend on it now more than ever.

And, while I also agree that the mob has long been marginalized by other groups when it comes to the drug trade, I think articles like this tend to overstate things when it comes to other groups - in this case the Russian mob. While nobody would deny there is a Russian OC presence in Philadelphia, the cases involving them are few and far between. What evidence is there that they are high up on the OC "ladder" in Philadelphia?

The Philly mob is certainly in decline but it seems some go too far with that narrative, prematurely overstating it's decline, while at the same time overstating the power of some other groups in order to create this contrast between the two that isn't reality.