by PolackTony » Wed Nov 09, 2022 9:49 pm
Obrigado, amigo meu. I’ll give it a listen when I have a chance.
An older example of the same problem for the viability of LCN in terms of racket control was Chicago’s attempt to take over rackets in Dallas in the 1940s. A CI told the Feds that Chicago failed in this for the same reasons that the local Dallas mafia had failed to really ever scale up to form a significant criminal “syndicate”: the Italian community there was small and criminal rackets were largely controlled by non-Italians. The terrain was not well-suited for LCN criminal operations to really thrive.
The Greek wrote: ↑Tue Nov 08, 2022 5:02 pm
Every illegal card game in LA is run by the Armenians. 10% rake per pot up to $25-50 depending on the stakes. They're catered with buffets and girls. They move around obviously.
Based on what little I know about LA, I would’ve guessed that, apart from La Eme, the Armenians and possibly the Persians might be in a position to organize some amount of gambling there (East Asian groups as well, of course). Question would be to what degree these groups would be able to cross-over into the country club crowd others have brought up earlier.
***
There’s a reason that OC syndicates and mafia-type organizations often have a strongly ethnic dimension (not just LCN and other US groups, but Jewish OC in Russia/Ukraine, Corsicans in France, or the Yakuza, postulated to have started among ethnic Koreans and quasi-ethnic occupational caste groups at the margins of society).
In already structuring a shared group identity, ethnicity marks a clear insider/outsider distinction and thus offers a basis to form a circle of trust. Some means of forming and maintaining a circle of trust is critical for the operation of OC syndicates, generally speaking. LCN, for example, has never operated in a vacuum in the US or exercised control over criminal rackets without being embedded within some broader social context. Families developed and racket territories were typically established in places that had tightly-knit Sicilian/Southern Italian communities. In many cities, the mob had little power or control of activities beyond these communities. In his study of the mob in Chicago, criminologist Robert Lombardo has underscored the importance of what he terms “racket subcultures”, essentially dense networks of cultural values and social relationships that enable criminal racket operations, which were deeply embedded within Chicago’s Italian communities (and extended beyond them to some degree). These broader dynamics, extending far outside the formal mafia organization, were and are a vital element of the past vitality and continuing viability of LCN. The erosion of these Italian-dominated racket subcultures has, IMO, been as much of a factor in the decline of LCN as LE pressure (and there is obviously interplay between these factors as well, which makes any causal claim as to LCN’s decline and continuing viability more complicated than highlighting one central factor).
Thinking of a group attempting to organize something like a gambling syndicate in contemporary LA, one has to also think, what racket subcultures exist there? Who is already in a position to exploit the opportunities of these? What would serve to form a circle of trust for a viable and large-scale gambling syndicate to form and remain viable?
[quote=aleksandrored post_id=243374 time=1668045097 user_id=5461]
If I'm not mistaken, something like this is said in this radio documentary.
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vOpMHQhBpQ[/url]
[/quote]
Obrigado, amigo meu. I’ll give it a listen when I have a chance.
An older example of the same problem for the viability of LCN in terms of racket control was Chicago’s attempt to take over rackets in Dallas in the 1940s. A CI told the Feds that Chicago failed in this for the same reasons that the local Dallas mafia had failed to really ever scale up to form a significant criminal “syndicate”: the Italian community there was small and criminal rackets were largely controlled by non-Italians. The terrain was not well-suited for LCN criminal operations to really thrive.
[quote="The Greek" post_id=243277 time=1667952123 user_id=104]
Every illegal card game in LA is run by the Armenians. 10% rake per pot up to $25-50 depending on the stakes. They're catered with buffets and girls. They move around obviously.
[/quote]
Based on what little I know about LA, I would’ve guessed that, apart from La Eme, the Armenians and possibly the Persians might be in a position to organize some amount of gambling there (East Asian groups as well, of course). Question would be to what degree these groups would be able to cross-over into the country club crowd others have brought up earlier.
***
There’s a reason that OC syndicates and mafia-type organizations often have a strongly ethnic dimension (not just LCN and other US groups, but Jewish OC in Russia/Ukraine, Corsicans in France, or the Yakuza, postulated to have started among ethnic Koreans and quasi-ethnic occupational caste groups at the margins of society).
In already structuring a shared group identity, ethnicity marks a clear insider/outsider distinction and thus offers a basis to form a circle of trust. Some means of forming and maintaining a circle of trust is critical for the operation of OC syndicates, generally speaking. LCN, for example, has never operated in a vacuum in the US or exercised control over criminal rackets without being embedded within some broader social context. Families developed and racket territories were typically established in places that had tightly-knit Sicilian/Southern Italian communities. In many cities, the mob had little power or control of activities beyond these communities. In his study of the mob in Chicago, criminologist Robert Lombardo has underscored the importance of what he terms “racket subcultures”, essentially dense networks of cultural values and social relationships that enable criminal racket operations, which were deeply embedded within Chicago’s Italian communities (and extended beyond them to some degree). These broader dynamics, extending far outside the formal mafia organization, were and are a vital element of the past vitality and continuing viability of LCN. The erosion of these Italian-dominated racket subcultures has, IMO, been as much of a factor in the decline of LCN as LE pressure (and there is obviously interplay between these factors as well, which makes any causal claim as to LCN’s decline and continuing viability more complicated than highlighting one central factor).
Thinking of a group attempting to organize something like a gambling syndicate in contemporary LA, one has to also think, what racket subcultures exist there? Who is already in a position to exploit the opportunities of these? What would serve to form a circle of trust for a viable and large-scale gambling syndicate to form and remain viable?