Since 1987, the Soviet-era parlor game Mafia has become a television series in Latvia, a World Championship event in Las Vegas and a training tool for the Russian security services. There are no game boards or joysticks involved in Mafia — just words — and a setup that’s probably as old as human settlement: An uninformed majority of civilians against an informed minority, the Mafia. One side has power in numbers, the other has the power of knowledge. But for today’s global entrepreneurs, Mafia has become much more than a game…

For PRI’s The World [a co-production of the BBC]

 

[For a complete archive of my stories for PRI’s The World, click here.]