THe thing is with the ability to bet through the internet via off shore betting sites can allow any organization to target any ethnic group if they wanted to to because the sites have the odds on every sport if they are diversified enough to try and corner the entire market, I know my guys site is set up to handle all the sports from horse racing to soccer, but he will tell you that obviously this is the time of year with the most traffic

Whats the Mastronardo brothers status these days? Are those guys still up and running? Didn't Joe Vito get prison time? Or was it just another slap on the wrist?

Why would you go on an off shore betting site connected to American LCN when you have much better offer on Asian betting websites and legal betting sites aren't that bad either (plus with them you at least know that you're going to get your money and that it isn't some kind of scam)? Why would you need a mob to run such site anyway? I don't see how LCN or any mob group in America profits from this. If anything, it makes life much harder for them because there's so much competition. Off shore and illegal online betting sites are good only for OC groups involved in match fixing and similar stuff

It would only make sense to me that these guys copy the odds they see on the internet sites and offer you a bit higher odds on the street.

Lots of Albanians in lower Bucks county (Huntington Valley), and in the northeast. They've mixed in with some of the Ukranian and Russian neighborhoods around Bustelton Ave in the city. It's an extremely poor country with a big underworld presence.

I wish someone would lend me 30k for 2pts a week, wtf ,not bad at all

Not true about no Italian presence, not even close

He's obvi not getting any type of serious jail time (if any). That being said losing millions is not quite a slap on the wrist lol.

The New Orleans family faded away due to attrition before the Russians or Albanians arrived. The Philadelphia family is still there and it doesn't appear these Albanians operated in the same area or were serving the same clientele.

If you've been paying attention, these predictions about these new groups "taking over" haven't really come true. If you go back far enough, you saw the same predictions regarding the blacks in the 1960's. The Colombians in the 1970's. The Chinese in the 1980's. The Russians in the 1990's. And the Albanians over the past decade. Each group stakes it's own claim but no one group has or will become the sole dominant group the way the Mafia was for at least half a century. If for no other reason than American law enforcement is much more on the ball now.

Also, while attrition is certainly the single biggest factor to the demise of the Mafia, I don't think making non-Italians would be beneficial. What trust and solidarity there is remaining in the mob is helped, in part, by members sharing the same ethnic background. It's why most virtually all OC groups work with their own. Besides, the Mafia can benefit just as much from non-Italian associates.



Exactly. It's not so much a matter of Russians, Albanians, or other groups taking a piece of the pie but, rather, the pie simply becoming bigger.



In America the biggest sport for betting, by far, is football. At least 50% of money wagered, I believe. Basketball is second and baseball third. Other things (hockey, boxing, soccer, etc.) would be after that.



First, betting online is illegal in America and some so called "legal" online sites have already been prosecuted.

Second, with the mob bookies, the only thing done online is placing a bet at a website that both the bookie and player can log into and see. No money is exchanged online but is exchanged in person between the bookie and player. Players don't have to worry about depositing their money in some online account and the bookie doesn't need to worry about running a nearby wire room the cops can kick down. And even if the offshore-based internet site does get taken down by law enforcement, a new one is up (with new user names and passwords) in a matter of days.

Ivy so what your saying is you know for a fact that the Albanians didn't take any bets any wheres besides out of north Philly? They only stayed in their ethnic groups? There was no physical way someone could of picked up a phone from south Philly and placed a bet with the Albanians because the Italians are taking so much heat? Your saying you saw where all of their bets were being taken place?

And we can't ignore the fact that any wise bettor would probably stray away from LCN Philly books because of the recent spotlight shown on Ligambi and his betting ring and unwanted attention. I have my doubts on the 800K coming solely from Albanian ethnicity. The fact is that the Albanians probably did take bets from some of the customers that the Italians normally take due to recent legal mishaps.

So respectfully, I do not agree with your ethnicity thesis, for I know books down in Louisiana that take bets from blacks, asians, whites, etc.

Well i'm sure JV wasn't happy about losing all that money but it's not the first time that has happened and it probably won't be the last. Those guys are mega loaded and probably just consider it the price of doing business. Everytime they get charged they lose major money but then they go right back to what they've done pretty much all their lives...sports betting. The money losses never seem to stop them but i bet a guy like Joe Vito and his brother would think twice about it if they ever got sentenced to some serious time. But they are politically connected so i guess thats not going to happen.

So yes just taking money without prison time is another slap on the wrist as far as Joe Vito and his brother goes.

Sure, it's possible they took a bet from a guy who's also bet with mob bookies. But look at the number of mob gambling cases over the past decade in Philadelphia and look at the number of Albanian or other gambling cases in Philadelphia. No comparison. The Philadelphia mob doesn't have anything more to fear from these Albanian bookies than the NY mob did from the Rudaj group.

I think the only place where the Russians are taking over stuff from the Italians is in Florida.

Yea but my point is it works both ways. The Albanians have no reason to fear the Italians either by encroaching on their territory, Philly LCN has been in steady decline just like every other city in the US. I don't think that the Albanians are worried about getting whacked by Philly LCN just as the Italians aren't worried about getting whacked by the Albanians.

True, but the original question was whether the Albanians' gambling operation in the city was anything for the mob to worry about. No more than the Chinese running their own gambling parlors in NYC for years being something for the 5 families to worry about.

Schratwieser did a fox news video report on the bust on aug 23.

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/video?clipId=9232257&autostart=true

Also on Daves twitter page today he said there was an argument between a scarfo guy and a Ligambi guy over gambling pickups.

@FOX29philly Old Scarfo Family fella yelling at Ligambi regime fella @ 12th & Jackson this a.m. Insider: big beef on gambling pick-ups#fox29

https://twitter.com/DSchratwieser

Nothing on the fox news site about it yet but i would think he's probably going to have something up on it later today or tonight.

you forgot about the big apple aka new York

The russians diffiantly are not taking over any rackets from the five families. The ROC in New York has been decimated by law enforcement over the past decade and they really havent been able to gain a foot hold in new york like people were predicting in the 80s and 90s.

I live in the neighborhood where these guys were busted and am friendly with the younger generation of the Albanian kids. These guys simply took book amongst there own people. The Georgians, Russians, and Albanians pretty much stick together around here and keep to themselves. They tend to deal within there "people" and its laughable that people think they stole wwagers from the SOUTH PHILLY LCN Family. No way No how. This is North East Philly and These guys (albanians) wouldnt even take your action if you weren't a foreigner who hung around there coffee shop ( russian, Georgian, Albanian ETC.).