Southern Glazer's, the largest wine and spirits distributor in the United States, was fined $5 million last month by the US Department of Justice for its role in a "pay to play" scandal in Pennsylvania – paying the state's retail monopoly to carry, or not stop carrying, its wines. Another distributor and a Maine distillery both paid $2m in fines, and a wine importer paid a $200,000 fine. A former director of marketing for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) pled guilty to fraud in connection with the case, and faces up to 20 years in prison.

If you want to know how big an advantage Southern Glazer's has over smaller distributors, take a comparative look at the bribes it offered.