Illegal bookmaking, crypto scams and doing too much by cellphone — what being in the mafia is like in 2025

When it comes to career advice, no kid listens to their parents. That also goes for the offspring of mob bosses.

Many send their kids to college attempting to get the new generation to “go straight,” but old ways are difficult to shed and family ties tough to outrun.

And while the Gen Z mafia members aren’t out kneecapping people or threatening to make them “sleep with the fishes,” they’re not exactly sitting home watching “Goodfellas” for tips either.

They’re indulging in high-tech crime, as recently made evident by a father and Gen Z son team alleged to be selling ghost guns — illegal, unregistered and untraceable firearms made from 3-D printed parts.

Cops also recently busted an was an online bookmaking operation allegedly run by reputed Lucchese crime family soldier Joseph “Little Joe” Perna and various Gen Z relatives.

They allegedly included Joseph Magno, 25, a former Ramapo High School wrestling standout, and his brother, Anthony Magno, 23, who played football for Bergen Catholic High School, both are sons of Perna’s ex-wife, according to the New Jersey Attorney General.

Also involved: Perna’s sons Joseph R. Perna, 25, and Anthony Perna, 23, plus a stepson, Frank Zito, the charging document against them shows.

The younger Joseph Perna, who pleaded not guilty, allegedly handled day-to-day chores of the operation, while his dad was the one financing it, per authorities.

Surprisingly, it can be the college-age kids who suck their mobbed-up relatives into schemes, according to one hardened ex-mafia enforcer.

“If it’s a kid who’s a street guy [relatively speaking], maybe the other students hit him up to make bets,” Michael Franzese, a former capo in New York’s Colombo crime family, who claims to have generated $8 million a week in the 80s, told The Post. 

“Then maybe he’ll call his dad and say, ‘Should we get into this business?’ Ten out of 10 times, [the dad] will say yes.”

New Jersey authorities claimed the clientele of Little Joe’s bookmaking ring included friends the younger Perna knew from high school and college.

And there’s a reason illicit bookmaking operations are still thriving despite the rise of legal options, such as DraftKings and FanDuel.

“You can gamble online, but you’ve got to give a credit card,” said Franzese, meaning that you need to pay for bets ahead of time. “Guys lose their money and they turn to [illicit] bookmakers to bet and get out of debt.”

Usually, that results in accruing more debt, this time with people who probably won’t go through the courts to recoup.

The ghost gun racket also benefits from the kind of tech savvy which comes more naturally to Gen Z gangsters.

Joseph Orapallo, 57, and his son Frank, 22, were arrested at their home in Staten Island. The two men stand accused of possessing ghost guns and gun making equipment. They are the son and grandson of Joseph T. Tomasello, a storied Colombo crime family capo.

Sources told The Post the younger generation of mobsters are also into crypto for money laundering, identity theft, dealing drugs and attempting to pull off shakedowns from a distance.

“Besides online bookmaking, there’s cybercrime,” James Buccellato, author of “Early Organized Crime in Detroit” and a certified gang specialist, told The Post. “Credit card fraud and identity theft. It could be a breach, like getting into a database, or something smaller like having a guy get a job in a restaurant, swipe credit cards and feed the numbers to someone on the street.”

But there is a catch that comes with embracing technology. It introduces a new way of doing the dirty work which once made the mafia feared and respected, but in a more impersonal way.

One wannabe tough sent a threatening message via cell phone: “Hey, this is the second text. There isn’t going to be a third,” per court documents in a racketeering case unearthed by the Wall Street Journal.

It gave his elders a pretty big laugh, as well as a few facepalms. As a Colombo family mobster lamented, referring to the 20 and 30-something gangsters in the making, “Everything is on the phone with them.” 

Annoying and amusing as that may be for the old-timers, it also creates huge risks, and – as recent federal cases show – reinforces how the old ways of getting face-to-face and conducting “business” in person were for a reason.

“Federal cases used to rely heavily on cooperating witnesses,” Seamus McElearney, a former special agent with the FBI and author of “Flipping Capo: How the FBI Dismantled the Real Sopranos,” told The Post.

“With the Gen Z criminals, half the evidence comes straight from their phones: Their messages, photos and location-data tell the story. In essence, little do they know, these messages constitute wire fraud. It’s a reflection of the times, but it is not good for them.”

Gene Borrello, an associate of the Bonanno crime family, told The Post long distance threats are indicative of the new school criminals — and their sheepishness will make it increasingly difficult to get paid. Especially if they’re dealing with losing gamblers, petty criminals or drug addicts who fear nothing short of physical harm.

He maintained: “When the old school guys die out, there is no more threat of violence. People say, ‘Well, that guy was a killer. So I am going to pay him.’ With the young guys, who view the mafia like a college fraternity, nobody’s going to pay.

“What will they do if they don’t get paid? Start yelling?”

Referring to the new school of Gen Z, would-be toughs, he added, “It’s becoming a joke.”

Also, when they get busted, believes McElearney, they start singing. “They don’t have the same code [as previous generations],” he said. “And they’re out for themselves. We’ll see how quickly they roll over.”

As the Cosa Nostra weakens, most old-time mobsters push their children to do something else, as in the case of notorious gangster Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.

“I don’t think parents ever want to see their kids go down the mafia route,” said Karen Gravano, daughter of Sammy and author of “Mob Daughter,” told The Post.

Karen had no interest in joining the actual organization – her father, after all, scored headlines for testifying against his former gang partners – but that didn’t mean she was going to stay on the right side of the law. After relocating to Phoenix from Staten Island she got into dealing ecstasy while in her late 20s.

The mob lineage did not hurt, she points out. In fact, it gave her credibility with her partners and added a fear factor for anyone who may try and rip her off. “I definitely think that children of parents who are infamous in the criminal world are sought after [by criminals],” Gravano told The Post, adding that her father was against her stint dealing.

“If someone wants to beat someone for money … they’re going to think twice because my father is a known person who has murders and stuff on his resume,” she added.

When the drug dealing enterprise unraveled, it was unveiled to be a family affair. Over 40 people were arrested over the operation in total which stretched from Arizona to New York. Gravano’s famous father pleaded guilty to federal and state charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Her brother, Gerard, was also convicted and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Karen and her mother Debra both escaped with probation.

Karen now owns an aesthetician salon in New Jersey and has gone straight, but her family learned the hard way how hard it can be to stay away from crime.

Others claim the mob as they knew it has changed beyond all recognition.

“We were taught to respect violence,” said Borrello. “These guys are being taught to just survive, make money, no more violence. That’s the wrong way … It’s just not the mob no more.”