The Government Took Over the Mob’s Best Rackets

Like the “numbers racket” (state lotteries). Of course, the government does it “for the children.”

I’d take The Godfather leading us over the crime families who lead the U.S. government or the gangsters who pull the strings behind the curtains at crime syndicates like the WEF.

I have a theory - which is pretty easy to prove - that the government, over time, has taken over most of the Mob’s best rackets.

One example is that most state governments now run state lotteries. A lottery is simply a “numbers racket.” Players in the lottery pick (and pay for) some numbers. If they pick the right numbers, they get a big pay-out.

Well, the Mafia had been offering neighborhood lotteries for decades if not centuries. This was called a “numbers racket” and, if the government caught the Mob doing this, they arrested and prosecuted the perpetrators of this “crime.”

Today, almost all U.S. states offer the very same lotteries. The only difference is that the States’ lotteries offer far lower chances of winning a significant pay-out and the States’ numbers rackets are done to benefit “the children.”

Actually, there are more differences. For example, the states get to advertise their lotteries via billboards, commercials, print and Internet ads, as well as free stories when someone “hits the lottery!”

Basically, the Lottery organizers are encouraging every citizen in the state to buy lottery tickets which might “make you (instantly) rich!”

Even if you never gross more than $50, you can feel good that you’re funding, say, college scholarships to help the children. (You’re actually funding another giant government racket, the Higher Education Racket.)

What the State is really doing is encouraging parents to spend their dwindling disposable income on a 1-in-2-million chance to hit a jackpot … instead of spending that $25 to $100/month on diapers, formula or cereal for their children.

But, wait, there’s more

In other ways, the government’s racket is even more duplicitous than the Mob’s business model.

If you win, the government’s going to take 40 to 60 percent of “your” winnings.

Uncle Sam will get almost 40 percent of “your” winnings and most states demand their tributes.

In California, the top state income tax is 12 percent. If you live in California and hit a lottery, you can deduct at least 50 percent of your winnings right off the top.

Furthermore, the government’s “Numbers Rackets” mobsters engage in deceptive advertising by telling players they could instantly win $10 million! 

This is not exactly true. In the fine print, we learn you can keep $10 million if you accept your payments in equal installments over 20 years.

If you happen to live another 20 years, by the time you’ve collected your full $10 million, inflation has probably stolen 70 percent of your winnings.

Because of this, virtually every jackpot winner accepts the “instant payout,” which is usually 40 or 50 percent lower than the advertised payout.

So you really didn’t win $10 million. The government’s lottery company will pay you $6 million - of which your friends in the government will take 50 percent … so you really won $3 million.

Except you really aren’t going to win diddly. I mean, what are the odds you can correctly pick six numbers out of 50? The odds are, like, 1-in-2 million (about the same odds as a healthy child dying from Covid).

And if you do pick the magic numbers, you have to share your windfall with the other players who lucked up and picked the same numbers.

The government does not like competition …

By running the Mob out of the numbers rackets, the government did something else nefarious - they gave themselves a monopoly on the same racket.

If you don’t believe me, try this experiment. Go to the State and tell them you would like to start a lottery for your neighborhood or town. Show your business plan to the bureaucrats who get to sign-off on businesses and tell them you’re going to offer your customers better odds of winning and will distribute rapid payouts to your winners. 

You will, of course, agree to let the government tax your profits. Tell them your lottery company will produce jobs and buy ads to support the local newspaper. Do all this and see if they “allow” you to start your own local lottery.

Again, those mean-old Mobsters offered their customers a much better proposition. The odds of winning the neighborhood numbers racket were far better …. and the Mob didn’t take out any taxes.

Here we get the real reason the Mob was targeted

for operating most of its enterprises

The Mafia didn’t pay taxes on its ill-gotten gains. That means the government didn’t get its cut.

We’ve all seen movies about federal agents waging war on moonshiners or bootleggers. As it turns out, the government has no problem with its citizens drinking adult beverages (or smoking cigarettes or, now, even smoking some pot). 

However, the government is put out when they don’t get their tax revenue from these sales.

Plus, fighting moonshiners or pot dealers is a great jobs program for local, state and federal law enforcement officials (as well as court officials).

And the list goes on and on …

Once upon a time, the Mob generated great cash flow from illegal gambling. The neighborhood bookie was probably the key man on the Mob payroll.

But now gambling - of all kinds in most states - is legal. (ESPN/Disney is now making a killing running sports book commercials.)

Government controls gaming from football betting to horse races to slot machines to lotteries. The State also racks up on license fees from the casinos the State allows to take bets.

The State taxes your winnings as a gambler and the profits of the casino and taxes the income of everyone who works at the casinos. It’s a good business … and the government doesn’t even have to run the business.

Selling - and taxing - booze and smokes is still a big money-maker …

Government doesn’t control alcohol sales or cigarette sales, but a good percentage of the money “Joe Six Pack” spends on those half dozen brew doggies goes to the government … and almost all the money the world’s nefarious smokers spend on a pack of cigarettes goes - not to Philip Morris - but to local, state and federal governments.

In my state of Alabama, the State dominates sales of “hard liquor” via its “State Stores,” which can sell a bottle of Jack Daniels much cheaper than its private package store competitors.

The (legalized) drug business is bigger than U.S. Steel …

Government is not yet a cocaine or heroin dealer (or maybe it is?), but many states have now gone all-in on dealing marijuana.

But illegal drugs are not the huge money maker in the world. As more people have learned in the past four years, legal drugs are where the real money is.

One might say that Pfizer or Merck control those businesses, but one would be wrong if he says this.

Big Pharma and Big Science and Big Medicine are equal partners in the effort to get as many people as possible hooked for life on 500 different legal drugs (or recurring “vaccines.”)

Government - in 100 different ways - gets its cut on pain killers, statins, anti-depressants, etc. 

For example, politicians are rewarded with campaign contributions (the “Bribery Racket”) when they support X drug company.

With the ever-expanding childhood vaccination schedule, the government even requires your children to get 50 different shots. (And lets don’t forget our pets and their often-mandated rabies vaccines, which is another scam).

I know millions of lives have been destroyed by people addicted to illegal drugs. However, I bet more people are “addicted” to legal drugs - and probably just as many ultimately die from these “approved” drugs - than are harmed by illegal drugs.

I’m just getting started …

The Mob also used to run “protection rackets.” Mafia chieftains demanded businesses pay them monthly stipends …. in exchange for the Mob not beating up the business owner or burning down his business.

The government later mastered that shake-down technique by simply creating thousands of business regulations (OSHA, the EPA, etc) and telling businesses “you better do this - spend this money … or we are going to shut you down.” Or: “If you don’t do A, B, C and D, we’re going to have to put you in jail.”

From what I’ve read, some mobsters once (and no doubt still do) “run guns.” Well, today, who is the biggest “gun runner” in the world? 

In one sense, The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is a massive gun runner. Also, one of the biggest customers of the MIC is now police forces, which stockpile the same equipment as most armies.

Prostitution or human trafficking might still be off limits …

About the only traditional Mob racket the government hasn’t taken over is prostitution. But, even here, one might argue that the government has no shortage of experience in “sex trafficking” operations. 

(UPDATE: See this Del Bigtree episode (No. 357) on the government’s involvement in “human trafficking.” Tens of thousands of minors who end up in America are trafficked in the sex/pedophile trade.)

For example, raise your hand if you think key people in the U.S. government knew exactly what Jeffrey Epstein was doing … and let him do it for decades.

Thinking about the sordid Epstein saga (where all the VIP “Johns” were protected), brings to mind yet another Mob racket - the blackmail and extortion rackets.

Why was Epstein recruiting hundreds of minors and young women to participate in the sex trade if it wasn’t to blackmail powerful and rich people.

Money laundering is another Mob racket - or necessity of the business - and one can’t help but wonder where Epstein got hundreds of millions of dollars and how he laundered all this money for so long. Trust me here: Epstein did NOT get this money from fees for his “hedge fund” business.

Speaking of blackmail and extortion, one could argue that the entire Censorship Industrial Complex is a criminal conspiracy to intimidate and silence people who might expose any and all of the above.

I’ll conclude with a  tribute to The Godfather

We’ve all seen The Godfather 20 times. From this film, I know that the family had members of the press on their payroll - just like Vito Corleone had cops, judges and politicians on the payroll.

I think members of the Deep State and leaders in our government took detailed notes while watching The Godfather, which was not a warning about what not to do in your working life. It was instead a “How-to” instruction manual on how to capture all the important organizations so you can continue to grow your business.

I love the line in The Godfather where Michael’s fiancé, Kay, tells him that senators and presidents “don’t have people killed.”

And Michael’s reply: “Who’s being naive, Kay?”

As mobsters go, Vito Corleone actually had some redeeming qualities. He wanted to keep the family out of the drug trade. Most of the vices his businesses offered customers were voluntary, “victimless” crimes. 

He performed numerous favors for numerous people and righted wrongs the government and “system” wouldn’t right.

The only two people Vito Corleone personally killed had it coming. That “big-shot” film producer who woke up with a horse head next to him was a pedophile, but even then, the Godfather let him live.

But Vito had no chance staying in that business. He should have focussed on his olive oil business. He should have known the government was going to take over all his best rackets.