Rackets & the district takeover loop
Each of the nine districts holds two rackets. Damage a racket until it stops paying — kill enforcers, hit targets of opportunity — and its boss comes out to stop you. Deal with the boss, then repeat for the second racket; after that the district's capo is exposed and a sitdown follows.
Nine districts, two rackets each, one boss per racket and one very busy knife. The racket loop is the true skeleton of Mafia III — the story missions just bookend it — so here is how a racket falls, every racket in the game with its maximum earn, and the wiretap math that makes the whole thing cheaper.
The loop, step by step
- Get the job. Racket contacts and interrogated informants mark two rackets per district on your map.
- Wiretap the sector. Three TL-49 fuses into each junction box; the map then reveals targets of opportunity, collectibles and — crucially — makes racket bosses recruitable when you finally meet them.
- Break the income. Kill enforcers, destroy targets of opportunity (stills, stashes, trucks — burn them, smash them or shoot the gas canister next to them). The earn bar drops until the boss steps out.
- Settle the boss. Without wiretap intel, your only option is to kill them. With it, you choose: cash now, or extra earn for the racket.
- Repeat, then sitdown. When both racket bosses are down, the district capo surfaces. Once the district falls, a sitdown at Eaglehurst Plantation decides which underboss keeps it.
A takeover does not lock you into anything: rackets can be worked in any order, districts started in parallel, and you can hand a temporary racket to one underboss and the finished district to another — at a loyalty cost. The consequences live on the underbosses page.
All 18 rackets and their max earn
| District | Rackets | Max earn each |
|---|---|---|
| Barclay Mills | Garbage (Di Napoli Waste Removal), Guns (Barclay Railways) | $60,000 |
| Delray Hollow | Prostitution (Perla's Nightclub), Smack (First Baptist Church) | $50,000 |
| Downtown | Construction (Cavar Construction Site), Blackmail (Imperial Men's Health Club) | $60,000 |
| French Ward | Sex (Un Belle Jardin), Drugs (Big Mouth Jazz Club) | $70,000 |
| Frisco Fields | Human trafficking (Bellaire's Supermarket), PCP (Duvall Hall Science Center) | $70,000 |
| Pointe Verdun | Moonshine (Sweetwater Distillery), Protection (Roberdeau Meat Packing) | $50,000 |
| River Row | Union extortion (Rigolet's Canning Company), Contraband (Skidaway Durables) | $50,000 |
| Southdowns | Gambling (Wilcock's Saloon), Black market (Mama Righetti's Bakery) | $70,000 |
| Tickfaw Harbor | Auto theft (Best Oil Racket), Smuggling (Holland Bros. Shipping) | $60,000 |
The fat districts are the French Ward, Frisco Fields and Southdowns at $70,000 per racket; the starter districts — Delray Hollow and Pointe Verdun — are the cheapest at $50,000. The endgame cash comes from the north and centre.
Recruiting versus killing: the actual economics
Every racket starts $20,000 short of its maximum earn. Trafficking runs close that gap permanently, and recruiting informants and bosses raises the initial earn — but once deliveries are done, recruitment math stops mattering. Killing pays cash immediately. For a full breakdown of the break-even point (the short version: with a 2% kickback you are looking at roughly twenty-five in-game days to recover a $1,000 cash payout you gave up), the system never punishes either flavour — but the achievement list does. Live Another Day wants 15 recruited informants; Can't Trust a Rat wants 15 killed. Pick a lane per run.
Wiretap coverage: junction boxes per district
| District | Junction boxes | District | Junction boxes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barclay Mills | 10 | Pointe Verdun | 7 |
| Bayou Fantom | 10 | River Row | 9 |
| Delray Hollow | 5 | Southdowns | 9 |
| Downtown | 10 | Tickfaw Harbor | 9 |
| French Ward | 9 | Frisco Fields | 11 |
Wiretapping survives into the postgame — and since the October 2026 patch, junction box data no longer vanishes when you finish the Stones Unturned DLC, which used to wipe coverage for part of the map.
What a taken racket gives you back
Owned rackets double as safehouses. Most contain free supplies — medicine cabinets, weapon lockers with a gun and ammo or a Tac-Vest — and guards will fight for you if a retaliation squad follows you home. Money in enemy locations mostly appears from the start of "Thicker Than Blood" and never respawns, so sweep each site thoroughly before you finish the district.
