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I'm aware, and have used, this practice in Oakland, CA, Los Angeles, SF, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle and Portland OR. One reason I keep a small amount of cash around - just for the vig.

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Canadianfella is correct. "Vig" is not the correct term. Vig, short for vigorish, is a yiddish/Slavic word used to describe the excessive interest on a loan from a lender of ill-repute. It's also used to describe the house's take of a book.

It's not just money you pay to shady people. If he charged you $5 for parking, but allowed you to pay when you came back, but it would be $10 instead, you could say the additional $5 was the vig as that represents a 100% interest on a short term loan.

It's extortion. You're paying protection money.

Yep, and my stuff was protected. Been doing it since at least 1995.

You have been financing crime.

I prefer to think of it as financing entrepreneurs.

At least the scale is much smaller than giving VC money to likes of Uber and AirBnB. So you have moral upper-hand.

Every tax dollar you pay finances one human crime or another.

I’m discovering an increasing number of edgelords here on HN.

You know that what you said isn’t true. Or you are really badly informed.

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