The mobsters are accused of pocketing some of the US$7 million (NZ$12 million) that was fleeced from unsuspecting victims who were drawn to poker tables in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and Long Island’s seaside playground for the rich and famous.<\/p>\n
Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner said the indictments offered a reminder that La Cosa Nostra is \u201cstill very real\u201d and that, like any organisation that has been attacked, \u201cthe mob has adjusted\u201d.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn case reveals Mafia is less visible but still alive<\/p>\n
The mob has shrunk considerably since the days when John Gotti Sr. ran the Gambino family, once one of the most powerful and feared crime organisations in the US.<\/p>\n
Back then, the dapper Gotti smiled and waved to courthouse spectators, winning the moniker of “The Teflon Don\u201d from New York’s tabloid newspapers after a string of acquittals.<\/p>\n
The Mafia and its violent mystique were a cultural phenomenon, featured in films such as \u201cThe Godfather” and \u201cGoodfellas\u201d, which paid tribute to a brazen US$6 million robbery at Kennedy International Airport, and later in the television hit \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Gambler](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/gambler-frank-costello-waves-as-he-leaves-federal-courthouse-R6SIDDIX4BAW5LWXZ3WIVWT6DU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Gambler Frank Costello waves as he leaves federal courthouse in New York (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, federal prosecutors, including future New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, launched a crackdown, using racketeering laws that carried life sentences and capitalising on an erosion of the Mafia\u2019s code of silence.<\/p>\n
Dozens of \u201cmade men\u201d went to prison, and the mob structure built around social clubs was largely dismantled. Gotti, who was eventually convicted, died of cancer in 2002 while serving a life sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m of a sufficient age to remember Giuliani claiming that organised crime is dead,\u201d said David Shapiro, a former FBI agent and assistant prosecutor who now lectures at New York\u2019s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.<\/p>\n
While \u201cthe structure has changed, the leadership has changed, the methods of governance have changed, they\u2019re still around because there are still people to be fleeced. It’s just not nearly as centralised, as open, as organised\u201d, Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
There are occasional reminders that the Mafia lingers. Six years ago, the reputed boss of the Gambino family, Francesco \u201cFranky Boy\u201d Cali, was shot to death in front of his Staten Island home. But the mob’s relative lack of visibility does not mean it’s gone away.<\/p>\n
Jerry Capeci, an expert on the mob who writes the ganglandnews.com web column, said the Mafia remains a force in the gambling world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not as out there as they used to be, and they stopped killing people. But they\u2019re still around,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mafia was in familiar territory with corrupt poker games<\/p>\n
In the Brooklyn prosecution, the Mafia played a major role in the high-end poker games, with mobsters posing as ordinary players at the tables and providing the muscle to collect debts, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
The victims, including one who lost US$1.8 million (NZ$3.1 million), were drawn to the games, usually Texas Hold \u2019Em, that seemed exclusive because former professional athletes played at the tables too.<\/p>\n
But federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say the ex-athletes and all the other players were in on a ruse, using technology to rig the outcome.<\/p>\n
The technology included corrupt automatic shuffling machines that read cards and predicted which player had the best hand. Some players in on the scheme wore special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read marked cards. These advantages were augmented by hidden cameras in the poker chip tray and light fixtures, along with an X-ray table that read cards that were face down.<\/p>\n
The results of the surveillance were received by an off-site operator who relayed the information to a \u201cquarterback\u201d or \u201cdriver\u201d at the table who signalled to the other cheating players what to do with their hands by tapping his chin, his arm or black chips.<\/p>\n
![\"FBI](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fbi-director-kash-patel-speaks-at-a-press-conference-KYZZVZUMIJGR7HF6BQLXIX3SFY.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
FBI director Kash Patel speaks at a press conference (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Sometimes, prosecutors said in one court document, the corrupt players \u201ctried to coordinate how to lose purposefully on occasion to keep the victim at the table for longer, or to avoid suspicion of cheating\u201d.<\/p>\n
A text message from \u201cBig Mikey\u201d to another person who was in on the scheme read: \u201cGuys please let him win a hand he’s in for 40k in 40 minutes he will leave if he gets no traction,\u201d according to court papers.<\/p>\n
After the games, mob collected on debts<\/p>\n
It was after the games when the Mafia displayed its muscle to collect on gambling debts that were not demanded at the games themselves, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, the victims wired what they owed to shell companies that laundered the debt. Other times, the mob leaned on more traditional crime tactics \u2014 robbery, extortion and assault, including a punch to one victim’s face \u2014 to force the card players to pay.<\/p>\n
The sophistication of the alleged fraud may come as a surprise to some, said Ron Kuby, a lawyer who has represented purported mobsters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis old image of them as unsophisticated yet brutal folks just isn\u2019t true anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He predicted the case will produce plea bargains and relatively light prison sentences, while reminding the public of the mob’s continued role in the gambling world.<\/p>\n
\u201cGambling has always been, as any Mafia historian will tell you, the mainstay of organised crime revenue,” he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Decades after a crackdown by prosecutors decimated the ranks of the New York Mafia, the indictment of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[67,156,111,139,64,69,437],"class_list":["post-99266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}