NBA coach, former player arrested in Mafia-tied nationwide gambling bust

Current and former NBA coaches and players were caught up in a massive FBI operation that resulted in dozens of arrests.

The arrests involved not only illegal gambling on NBA games but also illegal and rigged poker games allegedly put on by the Italian mob families of La Cosa Nostra.

‘We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars of fraud.’

Current Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA champion (as a player) Chauncey Billups, current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier, and former NBA player and championship-winning coach Damon Jones were all named by the FBI in unsealed indictments on Thursday.

In both the betting and poker cases, there were three overlapping suspects, one of whom was Jones.

FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella announced the criminal enterprises, which included wild cases of extortion and fraud, resulting in 31 arrests.

According to Nocella, six defendants participated in brazen sports corruption schemes that involved insider sports betting conspiracies and included confidential information about NBA players and teams.

“Betting on inside, non-public information about NBA athletes and teams,” which included “when specific players would be sitting out” or when they would be taken out early for injuries or illnesses, the gamblers “relied on corrupt individuals, including Jones and Rozier,” who abused their long-standing friendships with players and coaches to get inside information.

“In at least one instance they got their information by threatening a current player, [Jontay] Porter, because of his pre-existing gambling debts,” Nocella revealed. Porter, who played for the Toronto Raptors, was banned from the NBA for life in 2024 after disclosing information to a bettor that resulted in a $1.1 million bet.

The U.S. attorney said that hundreds of thousands of dollars were made through fraudulent bets on the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers, Trail Blazers, and Raptors. Most of the money was made through prop bets, both online and in person at casinos. Those involved placed the maximum bets possible, and most of their bets were successful. The money was allegedly laundered through wire transfers and cash exchanges.

Things get even more complex and strange regarding the illegal poker games, which utilized obscure technology and even robberies.

RELATED: Toronto Raptors’ Jontay Porter banned from NBA for life after disclosing info to bettor for $1.1 million bet

Dozens were arrested in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games put on by the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families of the Italian mob.

As early as 2019, poker games in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan lured high-rolling players who were excited at the idea of playing cards with well-known former NBA players like Billups and Jones. These victims, Nocella noted, were known as “fish.”

The superstar athletes were referred to as “face cards.”

“Everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the ‘face cards,’ were in on the scam,” Nocella explained.

Once the game was under way, the defendants “fleeced” the victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. The organizers also used a variety of complicated technology. For example, they used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered so that they could read the hands that were dealt and relay that information to an off-site operator.

The operator would then send that info to a person at the table via cell phone, who was known as the “quarterback.”

The “quarterback” would then signal to others at the table who had the best hand.

Other technology included poker trays that read cards, special contact lenses or glasses that could read premarked cards, and an X-ray table that could read cards.

Crimes related to the card games included robbery at gunpoint in order to obtain the rigged shuffling machine and extortion to ensure that gambling debts were repaid.

RELATED: More MLB players suspended for gambling, including top Oakland reliever Michael Kelly, World Series pitcher Andrew Saalfrank

Chauncey Billups of the Detroit Pistons. JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images

While the mob families were already hosting non-rigged but illegal card games in New York, they allegedly became involved in the high-tech games by organizing them, taking cuts of the winnings, and ensuring that debts were collected.

Director Patel called the indictments a result of “an illegal gambling operation and sports-rigging operation” that has been going on for years.

“We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud,” Patel added.

Charges related to the NBA gambling included conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering

For the poker games, wire fraud conspiracy, illegal gambling, money laundering, Hobbs Act robbery, and extortion were examples of the charges.

Rozier will appear in front of a judge on Thursday after he was arrested in Orlando, Florida, whereas Billups will see a judge in federal court in Portland.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!