Mafia Wars Cash Rackets; Strategy Guide

Long overdue, but it took awhile to get all the data for mastering some of the cash rackets. It seems that for new Mafia Wars accounts, some of them only have cash rackets as it is (many went back to having property), so if you do not have access to rackets, don't worry.

If they do open up rackets for everyone, the data will be here and ready when that time comes.

With that said, cash rackets are by far the most developed out of all the racket types (cash, attack, defense, jobs). There are 15 total rackets composed of 5 tiers of 3 rackets a piece.

If you do not know what rackets are, please see the rackets overview post.

Special thanks to Baytor for helping me collect a lot of the racket info and screenshots.


Card Games (4 hour cash rackets):

Three-Card Monte (master this to unlock Backroom Poker)

Cost: 5 Influence
Time until completion: 4 hours
Reward: $6,600 ($10,000 if mastered), 5 influence, 1 Experience Point
6% Racket Mastery


Backroom Poker (master this to unlock Executive Game)

Cost: 16 Influence
Time until completion: 4 hours
Reward: $333,000 ($495,000 if mastered), 16 influence, 1 Experience Point
3% Racket Mastery


Executive Game (top in tier)

Cost: 38 Influence
Time until completion: 4 hours
Reward: $39,000,000 ($59,000,000 if mastered), 38 influence, 1 Experience Point
1% Racket Mastery


Betting Rackets (8 hour rackets)

Numbers Racket (master this to unlock illegal sportsbook)

Cost: 7 Influence
Time until completion: 8 hours
Reward: $10,400 ($15,600 if mastered), 7 influence, 1 Experience Point
12% Racket Mastery


Illegal Sportsbook (master this to unlock Fixed Horserace):

Cost: 21 Influence
Time until completion: 8 hours
Reward: $576,000 ($864,000 if mastered), 21 influence, 1 Experience Point
3% Racket Mastery


Fixed Horserace (top in tier):

Cost: 53 Influence
Time until completion: 8 hours
Reward: $76,000,000 ($114,000,000 if mastered), 53 influence, 1 Experience Point
2% Racket Mastery


Prostitution Rackets (24 hours)

Strip Club (master this to unlock Massage Parlor)

Cost: 10 Influence
Time until completion: 22 hours
Reward: $15,000 ($22,600 if mastered), 10 influence, 1 Experience Point
10% Racket Mastery


Massage Parlor (master this to unlock Escort Service)


Cost: 26 Influence
Time until completion: 22 hours
Reward: $900,000 ($1,350,000 if mastered), 26 influence, 1 Experience Point
4% Racket Mastery


Escort Service (top in tier):

Cost: 75 Influence
Time until completion: 22 hours
Reward: $110,000,000 ($165,000,000 if mastered), 75 influence, 1 Experience Point
3% Racket Mastery


Import / Export Rackets (2 day rackets)

Customs Scam (master this to unlock Import Scam)


Cost: 17 Influence
Time until completion: 44 hours
Reward: $25,000 ($37,600 if mastered), 17 influence, 1 Experience Point
12% Racket Mastery



Import Scam (master this to unlock Dockyard Scam):

Cost: 44 Influence
Time until completion: 44 hours
Reward: $1,500,000 ($2,250,000 if mastered), 44 influence, 1 Experience Point
5% Racket Mastery



Dockyard Scam (top in tier):

Cost: 128 Influence
Time until completion: 44 hours
Reward: $170,000,000 ($255,000,000 if mastered), 128 influence, 1 Experience Point
2% Racket Mastery



Housing Rackets (3 day rackets)


Crooked Rental (master this to unlock Crooked Highrise)


Cost: 25 Influence
Time until completion: 66 hours
Reward: $36,000 ($54,000 if mastered), 25 influence, 1 Experience Point
18% Racket Mastery



Crooked Highrise (master to unlock crooked suburb):


Cost: 66 Influence
Time until completion: 66 hours
Reward: $2,200,000 ($54,000 if mastered), 66 influence, 1 Experience Point
5% Racket Mastery



Crooked Suburb (top in tier):


Cost: 188 Influence
Time until completion: 66 hours
Reward: $245,000,000 ($368,000,000 if mastered), 188 influence, 1 Experience Point
3% Racket Mastery



Conclusion

The difference in pay between the 4 hour and 8 hour rackets is negligible - the top 4 hour racket pays 59,000,000 when mastered while the top 8 hour racket pays 114,000,000. After that, the amount you get paid per hour drops off significantly. Compare the Fixed Horserace @ $114,000,000 for 8 hours to the Crooked Suburb @ $368,000,000 every 3 days. The Horserace pays out almost 3 times as much.

Some math:

At 20 rackets total, if you were running 20 Fixed Horserace rackets (with the racket mastered), you would be making $6.84 billion per day. At this rate, if you somehow were able to reset your rackets every 8 hours, it would take about 146 days to make the 1 trillion dollar achievement.

If you were running 20 escort services and collecting them every 22 hours on the dot, you would make $ 3.6 billion per day. At this rate, if you collected every 22 horus, it would take about 278 days to make the 1 trillion dollar achievement.

In the end rackets will simply not be as profitable as property. It is definitely easier to get started with rackets, but on my main account I make about $6.2 billion per day and do not have to collect or start anything - it is automatic.

However, there is definitely a creative way to use rackets to make tons of cash. Since it is so easy to get started in rackets making a lot of money early, if you had a very low level account you could do rackets for cash and then do boss fights over and over again. Since boss fights only cost a few energy if you have a low energy pool, you can do literally a hundred boss fights a day to get tons of cash if you only have a pool of 10 energy.

You could do the $999 trillion achievement in a matter of weeks by doing that. While it's neat in theory, it's not practical.. and then you are left with an account that will struggle leveling up because of all the levels you got from fighting bosses instead of doing jobs.

Bottom line: cash rackets are just not worth it right now. It's a very neat system though and could definitely be salvaged, just at the moment the cost (time, being there to check on the properties, influence stat points) vs. reward are not lined up.