[Guide] Racketeering (WIP)

[Ketamine Kowboy]

 

What is Racketeering? 

 

 

Racketeering is, by the most common and general definition, is an act by organized crime groups in which the members of the said group form a substantial business or a way of often collecting large amounts of illegal money regularly, repeatedly, or briefly. The more specific definition of racketeering is that racketeering is made up of extortion or criminal coercion. Originally a racket was when you were referring to a criminal act in which the perpetrator(s) offer a fraudulent service that will, in most cases, never come to effect; this is still the case today. These services will most likely never come to effect because racketeering in most cases is the solution to a problem that was never there in the first place or an issue that wouldn't be there if it were not for this racket. In almost all cases, the problem that the racketeers are supposedly protecting you from is a problem they themselves have caused, but this is often concealed rather swiftly by these criminal organizations.

 

In recent times the term "racketeering" has significantly widened its definition and can now be used much less strictly to describe a continuous or repeated organized illicit operation. Even those crimes that may not directly if at all fraudulent practices—two examples of this being a drug racket or a numbers racket. Neither of which, for the most part, are deceptive or fraudulent due to the intended clientele. Racketeering is most often associated with small or large organized crime groups and got its term coined by the Employers' Association of Chicago in June 1927. This was done in a statement regarding organized crime groups influencing the Teamsters union, done famously by the Italian LCN [La Cosa Nostra].

 

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Common Rackets

 

 

A Protection Racket is a form of racketeering that is done by offering people or business protection for an often large amount of money in exchange. They often also offer to pay for any damages done to the person or property they extort from, in part or whole. This practice is seen all around the world and was very common in Russia during and after the Soviet Union. Few places are as affected by this as Sicily in Italy, where it is believed different factions of the Italian mafia extort over 70% of businesses. 

 

A Fencing Racket is much like it sounds like, a racket where the money gets made by fencing stolen goods. Many of these goods being taken from containers, stores, or storage units. This racket is widespread in poor neighborhoods, mainly Hispanic and Afro American ghettos, but like much else, it isn't exclusive to these areas. A lot of people have unknowingly taken part in fence racket; this can be accidentally done in many ways, from something as little as buying a very cheap smart-phone off a site like eBay. 

 

Loan Sharking Rackets are rackets where people loan money from a loan shark, and they often have high interest and rigorous terms if the cash is for one reason or another late. These loan sharks generally operate outside of the local authority. Threats of violence and blackmail often enforce these loans, this forces the person who has taken this loan to pay it back in cash, or pay with their life or the lives of loved ones. 

 

Numbers racketeering is when a criminal(s) or large scale criminal organization hosts an illegal lottery or gambling operation. Most numbers racket are often gambling dens, where members of a crew or members of various crews meet up and play cards, be that Blackjack, Texas hold 'em, along with many different card games or gambling games such as roulette. However, illegal gambling is often very loosely defined, and gambling laws can vary drastically from state to state.

 

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More to come soon.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Lmao

[Jura]

Awesome guide, will help a lot of people!

[LilMere]

Nice guide! A lot of factions should read this!

[RackLine]

Awesome guide, thanks for posting!