I started following this mob stuff in the early 2000s, back then most of the talk was of decline, disarray. Newspapers and articles would say the mob would be totally gone in 20 years. Back then, barely any families even had a boss, there was complicated power sharing arrangements, and numerous street bosses.
Despite all this, if we compare the families of 2000 compared to 2016, I think the case can be made for some being in a stronger place. Gambino and Lucchese family stick out mainly as being in a pretty strong position. A case could also be made for Philly too, recently we have seen George Anastasia change his tune from "the mob is played out here" to "were seeing more members on the streets now than since the late 80s"
Bonnano's probably worse off than at the turn of the century, Colombo's also maybe. Genovese, hard to know but seem to be pretty steady.
I think also the mob are flying so far under the radar today also, no hits really, no one really being flashy, no social club hangouts (still a few), members in NY living spread out amongst the populations, not congregating like they used to.
Also there just not really getting any media attention anymore, and no doubt law enforcement now has much bigger fish to fry with terrorism. its been 10 years since the sopranos ended, now were talking about Donald Trump, ISIS, Putin. All this has served them well. My house mate is from NJ, young guy, could name maybe 1 family out of 5, only name he knew was John Gotti. Really operating in the shadows these days, I guess they learnt their lessons.

Decline? No, I would say settling. In philly the men that was sentenced In 88-89 done their time, they are not too old so can muscle on the street and under Ligambi was made 5 or more people so have 40 made men.
In New York after Gotti reign Cefalù stabilizza the family, same thing for the Luccheses with crea. The colombos was ever full of rat so never really recover. Cant speak for the bonannos.

I feel like it's the same in Chicago. The prosecutions/media coverage have come to a virtual standstill, making me think that they are so scaled back as to be close to being dismantled; they have gone way underground like never before; or the FBI has basically just forgotten about them.

Maybe a combination of all three. I would expect a lot of it has to do with the FBI focusing nearly all its resources on terrorism.

No mob activity, let alone mob activity over the last 20 years, even registers on the same scale as terrorism in terms of a public threat.

And with the mob if they do get out of line it is likely to froth up and become self evident.

Who knows what the mobs big scores are these days but, for the sake of argument, you say they have pulled back to running more or less benign street stuff like prostitution and bookmaking, who cares.

The Feds really only ever went full on after them due to their corruption of public institutions, murder, corruption of unions etc.

Those days are over, anyway.

Apart from the obvious money makers, i.e gambling, loans, unions, The Gambino's seem to be heavy in the drug trade, prostitution etc I don't think there far behind the Westside right now, due to them rackets. their probably level in terms of power/money making.

Yeah and also jonnynonos, all the media attention on Chicago is about its out of control homicide rate, which is not related at all to the mob.
I think a lot of families have really adapted well in the last decade, they realize that you have to be so invisible and attract no attention what so ever from the media, feds and general public. Many people today don't even realize the mob are still around which suits them well. Will be interesting though if and when we see a murder if the attention of the feds quickly comes back onto them.

Relatively speaking, the Gambinos have always had the most involvement in the sex trade, i.e. prostitution, strip clubs, pornography, etc. And they're certainly one of the families most involved in the drug trade.

The Gambinos are a strong #2 but the Genovese are stronger. The Genovese being #1 comes from 1) controlling the biggest bookmaking and loansharking operations (the mob's #1 moneymaker), and 2) having the most influence over labor unions and legitimate industries remaining.

Alittle off topic, but would you consider biker groups a threat in this field?

A threat in what field?

The sex, pornography field which i thought abit of a biker thing ivy. Cheers

There are OMG groups in the US that are involved in strip clubs and prostitution.

By the sounds of things they're head and shoulders above the other families in the drug trade.