The highjackings gangsterreport mentioned were a case of the family forcing a partnership (basically taking a cut) from some guys running a stolen goods ring. It was more of a street tax thing than a scam like betting into a book with no intention of paying any losses.
The 2004 New Jersey OC report stated that the Philadelphia family lacked the wherewithal to really expand into legitimate interests. And cases since then have largely born that out. Ligambi, for example, was said to have investments in real estate, a towing company, as well as his 50k a year no show job with the garbage company. I imagine some other members have legit interests too. But, in terms of the organization as a whole, it seems to be a street operation at this point. The bulk of it centered around gambling, ie bookmaking and video poker machines.
The guys running the stolen goods ring were deep in collusion with Big Ron Previte, after Merlino paired him up with Ralphie Head. These were scams Previte brought to Merlino, Merlino signed off on, in hopes of moving the goods after, and then not having the capacity to move said goods, sometimes Merlino & Abruzzi thought of these schemes, claiming they would be bonafied money makers. If you read Prevites book, it has nothing to do with street tax. Just a money earning scheme that never worked out outside of one time with TV's & Computers. Betting into books with no intention of paying is something Joey Merlino is known for and did to his own guys. Two different examples of the guy being unable to earn the way the typical underboss/boss, should. For example, Previte mentions a scheme Merlino came up with of hijacking a truck load of nickels, half a million dollars worth of nickels, Merlino claimed they could make up to between two hundred and twenty thousand dollars and some change, by offloading these silver dollars to a guy he knew in the check cashing business. All that was good and well, problem was five hundred thousand worth of nickels equates to about a hundred thousand pounds of nickels, they had no way to offload that many nickels. Mind you, this was Merlino's idea reportedly. They still went along with it, but the truck full of nickels was never found by Merlino or his guys. Another waste of time with no money earned.
