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Mafia Involvement in the US Economy
By the late 1970’s the mafia had their hands in many industries. They even got involved in betting on college sports. Several mafia members associated with the Lucchese crime family participated in “point shaving”. The focus of their scheme would be on the Boston College Basketball team. Through bribing and intimidating several members of the team, they would ensure their bets against the point spread of each game would go in their favor. In association with the Lucchese crime family, Rick Kuhn and Henry Hill, with the help of others, manipulated the results of Boston College Basketball games from 1978-79 stealing over $5 million, the largest cash robbery in American History.

One of the most lucrative gains for the mafia was through gas-tax fraud. They would create schemes to keep the money that they owed in taxes after the sale of millions of dollars worth of gasoline. This helped to sell even more gasoline at a lower price. The man who mastered the scheme was Michael Franzese. Michael Franzese, better known as the Yuppie Don, ran and organized a Gas scandal that stole over $290 million in gasoline taxes by being inconspicuously absent when the government would come to collect and conveniently shut down the Gas Station before Government officials could make him pay what he owed.

Labor Racketeering helped the mafia to control many industries from a macroeconomic scale. This tactic helped them grow in power and influence in many cities with big labor unions such as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and many others. Many members of the mafia were enlisted in Unions and even became union executives. La Cosa Nostra was a mafia group that rose to economic power through their heavy involvement in unions. The Mafia has controlled unions all over America to extort money and resources out of big business, with recent indictments of corruption involving the New Jersey Waterfront Union, the Concrete Workers Union, and the teamster union.

Restaurants were yet another powerful means by which the mafia could gain economic power. A large concentration of mafia owned restaurants were in New York City. Not only were they the setting of many killings and important meetings, but they were also used for smuggling of drugs and other illegal goods. Smuggling these goods in shipments of food for the restaurants proved to be quite effective. From 1985-87, Sicilian Mafioso’s in America imported an estimated $1.65 billion worth of heroin through the Al Dente Pizzeria Chain, hiding the cargo in various food products.

Another one of the areas of the economy that the mafia was most influential was Las Vegas. Many credit the Mafia with being a big part of the development of the city in the mid 20th Century. It was through millions of dollars in capital flowing into new casino resorts that laid the foundation for further economic growth. This capital didn’t come from one mafia family alone, but many throughout the country seeking to gain even more power and wealth. Large profits from casinos, run as legitimate businesses, would help to finance many of the illegal activities of the mafia from the 1950s into the 1980s.

Mafia’s economic influence began just after World War II with the opening of the first gambling resort “The Flamingo”. In the 1950s more Mafia-financed casinos would be constructed. These resorts included the Stardust, Sahara, Tropicana, Desert Inn, and Riviera. Tourism in the city greatly increased through the 1960s and strengthened the local economy. The mafia was able to reap the benefits of their investment through millions of dollars in profits. However, the 1960s was also when the Mafia’s influence in the Las Vegas economy began to dwindle.

The Nevada State government and Federal government had been working to weaken Mafia activity on the Strip. In 1969, the Nevada State Legislature would pass a law that made it easier for corporations to own Casinos. This brought new investors to the local economy to buy Casinos from the Mafia. The U.S. Congress would pass The RICO Act a year later. This new law would give help law enforcement go after the Mafia for illegal activities. The 1980s brought a crushing blow to the mob involvement in Las Vegas. Through the RICO law, many in the Mafia were convicted and imprisoned.