As a teenager, Luciano started his own gang and was a member of the old Five Points Gang. Unlike other street gangs, whose business was petty crime, Luciano offered protection to Jewish youngsters from Italian and Irish gangs for 10 cents per week. He was also learning the pimping trade in the years around World War I. Luciano also met Meyer Lansky as teenagers when Luciano attempted to extort Lansky for protection money on his walk home from school.