Did This Real Life Illegal NYC Gambling Operation Inspire ‘Only Murders in The Building’ Season 5?

Only Murders in the Building was firing on all cylinders this year, which is no small feat for a show entering middle age.

Season 5’s central mystery delivered the goods as per usual, but the season also sprinkled in character development and political commentary, all while introducing a new slew of Oscar-winning guest stars. At one point, four Oscar-winners acted in one scene together: Meryl Streep, Renée Zellweger, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dianne Wiest, in a hypnotic concoction of on-screen talent. That’s not to mention Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz, who, while not in that scene, nevertheless delivered the season’s — and perhaps human history’s — most hilariously creepy smile. Add in Bobby Cannavale, Téa Leoni, Keegan-Michael Key, Beanie Feldstein, Paul Rudd voicing a robot, and the 80-year-old Steve Martin delivering an inadvertent pole dancing routine, and you already have an iconic season. 

But Season 5 went even harder. As Mabel made peace with her life choices, Oliver grew more humble, and Charles ended his cycle of self-destruction, a political conspiracy unfolded around them that had real-life parallels. 

Spoilers ahead!

As it turned out, New York City’s mayor Beau Tillman (Key) was the dastardly evildoer behind the death of Lester, the Arconia’s beloved doorman. He had been covertly working with the city’s most unethical billionaires (as if there were any other kind) to fund his campaign and facilitate construction of the city’s first casino. He was also apparently modeled after current (and soon-to-be-former) NYC mayor Eric Adams, who entered 2025 having been indicted on five separate criminal counts including wire fraud, accepting bribes, soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, and engaging in conspiracy to defraud the United States. There is no indication that he also committed murder, but he may as well have, considering how much New Yorkers hate him now. The man dropped out of the mayoral race in September 2025.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that this finale of Only Murders in the Building has dropped just one week before the NYC mayoral election — an election in which Andrew Cuomo, who recently became Adams’s new BFF, will seek to beat frontrunner Zohran Mamdani for Adams’s soon-to-be vacant mayoral spot. Perhaps the good people of New York need this reminder that Adams and all allegedly fictional representations of him are as trustworthy as Chinatown bodega boner medicine. 

But wait, there’s more real world stuff! The secret gambling den where Key’s character conducted his shady deals may have been ripped from the headlines as well. Earlier in October 2025, 31 people including Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones were arrested for participating in a nationwide illegal gambling scheme with the New York Mafia. The conspiracy unfolded partly in an unassuming Kip’s Bay apartment on the east side of Manhattan, where five infamous Italian American Mafia families led an illegal poker operation. Such secret gambling dens are actually rampant in New York now, and are invitation-only high-stakes affairs, just like in OMITB. 

Sure, the secret gambling den of Only Murders in the Building was housed in the Arconia, on the opposite side of town, and with only tenuous ties to the traditional Italian Mafia, but it was nevertheless a secret gambling den in NYC. It was also still run by the Mafia; that is, the new Mafia. As in, the New Mafia of unscrupulous billionaires, who, for better or for worse (but mostly definitely worse), are running modern New York City into the ground. In Season 5, this New Mafia was represented by Waltz, Zellweger, and Logan Lerman. Indeed, Lerman’s character pulled a 180 and turned himself into the police along with Waltz’s and Zellweger’s characters, allowing us viewers to hope that maybe, just maybe, there are billionaires out there who might do the right thing one day. Taylor Swift, for example, who regularly donates huge sums to charity, is on the right track. 

Perhaps the biggest news of Season 5, however, is that Only Murders in the Building has life in it yet. Just consider Season 5’s bombshell ending in which Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) winds up dead at the gates of the Arconia — just barely “in the building,” in podcasting terms. It not only brings the show full circle, but also promises a Season 6 set in London that investigates titans of the mystery genre like Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

And who knows? Maybe someone who looks and acts like Boris Johnson can be accused of double homicide next season. Charles can have an affair with a 31-year-old from Love Island. Howard can cheat on his Italian Mafia boyfriend with Sir Ian McKellen. I can’t wait!