After decades in the shadows, the New York Mafia is once again taking center stage in the NBA’s gambling game

Four of New York’s five organized crime families were allegedly involved Sophisticated rigging of high-stakes poker games Which one investigator said was “reminiscent of a Hollywood movie.”

The gangsters are accused of pocketing a portion of the $7 million seized from unsuspecting victims who were drawn to the poker tables in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and Long Island beachfront for the rich and famous.

Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Ebner said the indictments were a reminder of that La Cosa Nostra “It’s still very real” and that like any organization that has been attacked, “the mob has adapted.”

The Brooklyn case reveals that the mafia is less visible but still alive

The mob has shrunk greatly since the days John Gotti Sr. He ran the Gambino family, once one of the most powerful and feared crime organizations in the United States

At the time, the dapper Gotti smiled and waved to viewers in the courtroom, earning him the nickname “The Teflon Don” from the New York tabloids after a string of acquittals.

The Mafia and its violent mystique were a cultural phenomenon, appearing in films such as “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas,” which paid tribute to a daring $6 million robbery at Kennedy International Airport, and later in the TV movie “The Sopranos.”

In the 1980s, federal prosecutors, including the future mayor of New York Rudy Giulianilaunched a crackdown using extortion laws that required life imprisonment, taking advantage of the erosion of the Mafia’s code of silence.

Dozens of “made men” went to prison, and the mob structure built around social clubs was largely dismantled. Gotti, who was eventually convicted, died of cancer in 2002 while serving a life sentence.

“I’m old enough to remember Giuliani claiming organized crime was over,” said David Shapiro, a former FBI agent and assistant district attorney who now lectures at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

“Even though the structure has changed, the leadership has changed, and the methods of governance have changed, it still exists because there are still people to take away,” Shapiro said. “It is not centralized, open, or organized.”

There are occasional reminders that the mafia remains. Six years ago, it was the famous boss of the Gambino family, Francesco “Frankie Boy” Cali Shot to death In front of his home on Staten Island. But the mob’s relative lack of visibility does not mean it has disappeared.

Jerry Capece, the mob expert who writes ganglandnews.com An online column said the Mafia was still a force in the gambling world.

He added: “They are no longer there as they were before, and they have stopped killing people. But they are still there.”

The Mafia was in familiar territory with corrupt poker games

In the Brooklyn trial, the Mafia played a key role in high-end poker games, with gang members posing as regular players at the tables and providing power to collect debts, prosecutors said.

The victims, including one who lost $1.8 million, were drawn to the games, usually Texas Hold’em, which seemed exclusive because former professional athletes also played at the tables.

But federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say the former athletes and all the other players were involved in a hoax, using technology to manipulate the outcome.

The technology included corrupt automatic shuffling machines that read cards and predicted which player had the best hand. Some players involved in the scheme wore special contact lenses or glasses that could read marked cards. These features were enhanced by cameras hidden in the poker chip tray and lighting fixtures, as well as an X-ray table that read cards that were face down.

The results of the monitoring were received by an off-site worker who relayed the information to the “midfielder” or “driver” at the table who signaled to the other cheating players what to do with their hands by tapping his or her chin, arm, or black chips.

Sometimes, prosecutors said in a court document, corrupt players “tried to orchestrate how to lose intentionally to keep the victim at the table longer, or to avoid suspicion of cheating.”

A text message from “Big Mikey” to another person who was involved in the scheme read: “Guys please let him win a hand worth $40,000 in 40 minutes and he will leave if he doesn’t get any traction,” according to court papers.

After the matches, the mob collected the debts

Prosecutors said it happened after the games when the mafia demonstrated its power to collect gambling debts that were not required in the games themselves.

Sometimes, victims transferred what they owed to shell companies that laundered the debt. Other times, the mob relied on traditional crime tactics—robbery, extortion, and assault, including a punch to the face of one victim—to force card players to pay.

The complexity of the alleged scam may come as a surprise to some, said Ron Coby, an attorney representing the alleged mobsters.

“This old image of them as unsophisticated and brutal people is not true anymore,” he said.

He expected the case to lead to plea deals and relatively light prison sentences, while reminding the public of the mob’s continuing role in the gambling world.

“Gambling has always been, as any mafia historian will tell you, the mainstay of organized crime revenues,” he said. “It’s always there.”