As highlighted by the DNA, the system used to infiltrate the slot-machine business by the Mafia gangs is very simple: legal gaming channels are employed to “clean” the proceeds from criminal activities. The starting point for the criminals is to become involved in the management of altered slot machines, which account for more than 50 percent of total revenue. The report makes it clear that the machines are “forced by the gangs on all the commercial establishments situated in their respective areas, then modified in order to reduce taxation and increase the gains for the gang”.



Bingo is another target. “In order to recycle capital sums and to engage in fraudulent IT activities” the gangs do not think twice about buying bingo halls, enjoying a remarkable success in Italy. Then there is horse racing, in decline for some years, but historically of interest to organised crime – and the gangs continue to invest in it, “influencing horse races through threats to the jockeys or doping of the horses”.



Organised crime has also made an entry into underground betting, alongside more or less traditional sectors, by running illegal betting “telematically through foreign bookmakers without any authorisation by the Amministrazione Autonoma Monopoli di Stato [AAMS] and without any tax deduction”.



A new development is represented by “false wins in competitions and lotteries”, achieved by “buying the winning tickets from their real owners in order to recycle funds gained from crime”. And finally, the DNA reports attempts to “manage gaming houses” or “the issue of loans at exorbitant rates of interest”.


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