How much of a problem were the Hutts?

[FaxModem1]

Watto's business aside, why did the Empire not want to expand into Hutt Space? Simply not capable, or was there really a lot of exchange of cash between the Empire and the Hutts to make it profitable to leave them alone?

Also, if the Hutts wanted to, how much of a danger was their military in comparison to the Empire/Republic?

[RogueIce]

New Canon, not a clue.

In Legends...not much of one. They had to hire a mercenary group to protect Nal Hutta when the Empire wanted to teach them a lesson during the Han Solo Trilogy (A.C. Crispin, not Brian Daley). And even that group wasn't stronger than the "Sector Fleet" sent out, which was pretty pathetic by even Bantam EU standards, IIRC. I think the battle was such that they wouldn't have won were it not for everything Han's smugglers had already contributed to that fight.

[AniThyng]

As a real world comparison, was the Soviet union able to stamp out organized crime within its sphere of influence?

[FTeik]

I can't comment on NuCanon, but in the old canon (now Legends) it went as follows:

Until 15,000 years before the movies the Hutts were warlike conquerors, who established a large empire in the Outer Rim. Since humanity evolved in and spread out from the Core, there was - relatively - little conflict (save that business with the humans from the Tion-Cluster and Xim the Despot). Then they had a huge civil war, that devastated their original homeworld and they changed their ways from conquerors/warriors to business people. According to the "Essential Atlas" they managed to infiltrate and control large parts of the galactic economy. One Hutt even managed to become Chancellor of the Republic and had his term last 275 years.
Now, what we typically saw of the galaxy in the Old Canon isn't representative of the developed areas (like Core, Colonies and Inner Rim) in terms of population-densitiy, industrialisation and security. What we saw were typically the far away, sparsely developed parts, where crime could thrive.
In regards to the Hutts, the territory they officially control is too far of for the authorities of the Republic to bother with, because of distance and the time the Hutts have been entrenched there (and the majority of their client-species wiilingly accept the Hutts dominion over them), while their inofficial sphere of influence (through economic domination) is much larger, probably too large for the Republic to risk antagonizing them.
During the Empire the Hutts simply agreed to pay Palpatine and the Empire huge sums of money and to supply them with slaves, so as long as the cash was flowing and the Hutts weren't causing too much trouble, the Empire was willing to leave them alone. LIke with the CorporateSector, the Empire got a share of the pie without the need to garrison and patrol the area (and it had another boogeyman available to justifiy the existance of its huge military apparat). In regards to the Imperial Operation we see in A.C.Crispin's HanSolo-trilogy, that was actually a sham-operation to discredit and ruin the Moff of Baxtel-sector. The Admiral of the force attacking Nar Shadda was actually ordered to retreat as soon as he could credibly do so.

[Solauren]

Legends: More then likely, the Hutts were paying the Empire tribute (taxes) and were left alone as long as they behaved. Hutt criminal contacts were probably as useful as Black Sun's for doing stuff the Empire didn't want most of the populace to know about.

nuCanon: One of their most powerful crime lords had trouble catching a two-bit smuggler.....

[Simon_Jester]

To be fair, that two-bit smuggler had one of the fastest ships in the galaxy, and could outshoot most of the galaxy's bounty hunters, and spent most of his time hanging out with an armed guerilla movement that even the Imperial Navy was having trouble tracking down and defeating. If I had to draw up a profile of the sort of man who could draw the anger of a major crime lord and survive the experience for a few years before his luck ran out, my profile would look a lot like Han Solo.

More generally, I see no reason to assume the Hutts' status has changed in new canon unless it's proven otherwise. I doubt it will be for at least a few years.