Slashdot Mirror
Mafia Tech Support
Mzilikazi writes "A story from Wired about performing tech support for the mob, mainly focusing on gambling. Some interesting information is presented about P2P applications. Frankly it sounds like fiction to me (you can already imagine the movie being made -- 'I Was a Hacker for The Mob'), but the story is interesting nonetheless and shows that if you're skilled and determined but have a flexible moral compass, there's a lot of job opportunities out there." I started reading it for the mob references, but kept on reading for the details of how to run an illegal gambling organization.
Essentially, the system acts as a market maker, matching up people who want to take different sides of a sports bet.
He's got his terminology wrong. That's not a market maker, that's a *market*. A market maker is just someone who's required to offer a particular price on both sides of the book in return for some preferential treatment by the exchange.
The story is fiction. The author, Simson Garfinkel is a grad student at MIT. Do a search in slashdot's archives and you'll see him mentioned in the past on all sorts of stories. He's also written a bunch of O'Reilly books.
I heard of 2 applications "for the mob". The most common code for the mafia is the usual "double book accounting" application. At midnight or from a hidden menu half the sales are erased, the tax to be sent adjusted and a number is shown to be removed, in cash of course. It never removes more than the cash in the register a lot easier in case of an audit.
The other application is the other way around. At 6AM, the application creates "fake sales" for the previous day; I heard this specifically for video stores (own by the Hells Angels). A bunch of tapes that really spent the night in the store, indicated as returned during the night, and compiled for the 6AM opening. Why you ask? Money laundering. These "fake sales" produces clean money at the cost of the tax. The stores accepted cash only, and the owner simply adds the indicated amount in the register.
I am always suspicious of stores that accept cash only! Or like that not too bright fellow who made 250K$ that year, with 4 peanuts distribution machines that takes only quarter, without ever bringing a single quarter to the bank, Only bills!
The IRS had a good case!
Only a stupid law has turned what should be a perfectly legal activity into a crime,
The government has to be involved, because if there's a hundred thousand dollars riding on a horse or a spin of a wheel, several people have quite a motivation in fixing that game. Historically speaking, they have often fixed the game. If you let every shyster with a deck set up a casino, there's going to be many stacked decks.
On the other hand, in places like Las Vegas where gambling is mostly legal, you don't see legitimate casino operators putting out contracts on each others' lives.
After one heck of a crackdown on organized crime. I spoke recently with an coroner who used to work in Las Vegas. Used to be 170 murders a year for a population of 1/3 of a million. Now it's 170 murders a year out of 2 million people. Gambling is high money and it's all about trust, meaning that the mob is likely to turn up where ever it exists.
Ironically enough, just a day or two ago, a trailer for the Movie This Thing Of Ours came out, and it's about a bunch of mobsters who move into computer crime.
Small world
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one " -Albert Einstein
visual aid for those of you, who, like me, had no idea what the fuck a red gingham dress was either.
It depends on what you mean by 'talk'. If he simply claims to work for the mafia legally, they couldn't care less. For instance, my step-father worked as one of the IT department managers directly below an exec who was a member of a mafia family (over at Waste Management, a fortune 500 company). These people don't exactly hide the fact that they are in the mafia (that, by itself, isn't illegal)--the local police already know who's in the mafia as do the FBI, so it isn't like you're spilling the beans (unless you describe some illegal activities, which I would HIGHLY recommend not doing).
At least that's the theory.
Various news reports regularly pop up about these machines beng used for full-blown casino-like gambling in bars. A common scheme works like that: Legal no-pay machines are bought wholesale from factories. Then the ROMs are changed. When the machine is installed in a bar, it is also wired to a switch located behind the counter.
Customers "in the know" can ask the barkeeper to flip the switch. This changes the operation of the machine to a different game. The customer is credited a certain amount (e.g. $50). When he leaves, he pays or gets the game's balance at the counter.
This is such a profitable business that a full-fledge gang war was raging last year in Southern France and Italy. At least one programmer was shot because he worked for the wrong people.
Friendly betting my ass.
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Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
Yeah, except that the MicroSerfs article you reference was an excerpt from a Douglas Copeland book. It was meant to be fictional and wasn't portrayed otherwise.
It's also a great book. One of his best IMHO.