George Anastasia and Dave Schratwieser talk about the impact of legalized sports betting on the Philadelphia mafia and more on this latest episode of Mob Talk.
We discussed the broad impact of legal sports gambling on organized crime in an earlier report here at About the Mafia but smaller families like Philly could be hit the hardest. It seems like some of the first legal operations to open are going to be in their own backyard. In a kind of ironic twist to this story alleged boss Joey Merlino is set to be sentenced in September for placing bets on sports which now can be done legally.
It will be interesting to see how big of a blow this actually is to the overall economy of the mafia both in the short and long term. It may force Cosa Nostra families to branch out into other avenues to balance out the potential loss of revenue. Exactly what other avenues are an interesting question especially for families outside of New York. Expanding into other area’s maybe even more dangerous in Philly at the moment with rumors swirling around about the feds trying to put together a major RICO case. Seems like the guys in the City of Brotherly Love have a lot of their plates of late with this new development and lingering court cases. Things just continue to get more and more interesting of late for the Philadelphia mafia!
