I get how some of them worked, so I am more so asking about, using examples from TV shows and movies, skimming a casino or “busting out” a business? How did they use the unions and construction businesses to make money, other than the traditional, non-mafia, way?
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Broadly speaking, there’s two ways to establish a racket.
The first is the extortion way. You demand that local businesses pay you a cut of their profits OR ELSE. This could be any kind of business, like a grocery store, restaurant, dry cleaners, or clothing store. During the 19th and early 20th century, the most common way the Mafia and Camorra extorted money from businesses was through the Black Hand. This involved people being sent a letter demanding money and often signed with a Black Handprint, which is where its name came from.
The second way is when a business owner chooses to get involved with organized crime without extortion. This can have some benefits, since you can use the Mafia to drive out competitors and such, though it comes with major strings. You have to pay up whenever you’re asked, since you really don’t want to be in debt to a professional criminal. The movie *Goodfellas* has an example of a restaurant owner, Sonny, and Henry Hill’s monologue explains the many ways money can be wrung out a restaurant, the drawbacks, and how these deals often end:
>Now the guy’s got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week, no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? Fuck you, pay me. Also, Paulie could do anything. Especially run up bills on the joint’s credit. And why not? Nobody’s gonna pay for it anyway. And as soon as the deliveries are made in the front door, you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. You take a two hundred dollar case of booze and you sell it for a hundred. It doesn’t matter. It’s all profit. And then finally, when there’s nothing left, when you can’t borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match.
I didn’t mention it before, but there are also a fair number of businesses that were fronts for organized crime from the beginning, being founded with the express purpose of laundering money. (That is, make money earned from criminal activities look like it had a legitimate source.)
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