To some extent the surburbinizing of the mob has helped them spread their gambling rackets , especially with the internet as IMO wiseguy sports books are the biggest they have ever been , that's a guess on my part but I also guess that spreading out helped them re build their real estate and construction game in south jersey as heir had been a borderline construction boom in he area.

I was under the impression that the west side backed Merlino in the 90s while the Gambinos backed Stanfa . Funny how the mob has its own proxy wars like govt do ( power plays have similar moves I guess ). From my limited understanding the west side really built up their south jersey sports gambling book and even got into Philly when Merlino was away so my guess is they had to work something out .

I also agree and would guess the west side and philly have more going on as their territories overlap and had to of been bumping into each other a lot and gambling is one of those business that morph into a lot of other things connections and thus rackets