Wiktionary
n. A scheme in which a criminal group provides protection to a business via violence outside legal authority.
Wikipedia
A protection racket is a scheme whereby a group provides protection to businesses or other groups through violence outside the sanction of the law. Through the credible threat of violence, the racketeers deter people from swindling, robbing, injuring, sabotaging or otherwise harming their clients. Protection rackets tend to appear in markets where the police and judiciary cannot be counted on to provide legal protection, either because of incompetence (as in weak or failed states) or illegality ( black markets).
Protection rackets are often indistinguishable in practice from extortion rackets since, for the latter, there will be an implied threat that the racketeers themselves may attack the business if it fails to pay for their protection. In an extortion racket, the racketeers agree simply to not attack a business. In a protection racket the criminals agree to defend a business from any attack. Conversely, extortion racketeers will have to defend their clients if threatened by a rival gang to avoid the client transferring their allegiance.
Certain scholars, such as Diego Gambetta, classify criminal organizations engaged in protection racketeering as mafia.
Usage examples of "protection racket".
Me, if it was left up to me I'd make gambling legal tonight but I'd break anyone for any protection racket, any dance hall protection or girls or whatever.
He figured that Lou Fleisher could put Markman to work as a muscle man in the meat cutters protection racket and planned for Markman to take the blame for the arsenal in Fleisher's apartment.
I was almost tempted to let him touch me, and hope that the protection racket stopped him from going too far.
My Protection Racket still has some insurance claims against your company.
It was obvious you picked Bayern-Franconia out of the blue to run a protection racket on.