The NBA season got off to an exciting start this week, and not just on the court.
On Thursday morning, just two days after the first NBA games tipped off, an NBA player and head coach were among over 30 people arrested as part of an FBI investigation into fraud and illegal gambling that allegedly involved the mafia.
Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier was arrested at a hotel in Orlando hours after his team lost to the Orlando Magic, ESPN reported. Rozier did not play in the game. Shortly after Rozier’s arrest was reported, ABC News broke the story that Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups had also been taken into custody and charged in an illegal poker operation tied to organized crime. Former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones was also arrested and charged in connection with both illegal gambling and illegal poker games.
Rozier and Billups are set to be arraigned later on Thursday in the districts where they were arrested — Rozier in Orlando and Billups in Portland, according to the Department of Justice.
The charges stemming from the investigation into over 30 people include wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“The FBI led a coordinated takedown across 11 states to arrest over 30 individuals today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing,” Patel said. “Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra, to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families.”
United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said that the first indictment “involves six defendants who are alleged to have participated in one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
“This scheme is an insider sports bettor conspiracy that exploited confidential information about National Basketball Association athletes and teams,” Nocella added.
“The second indictment involves 31 defendants alleged to have participated in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games. These defendants, which include former professional athletes, used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games that were secretly fixed. The games in the New York area were backed by the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families of La Casa Nostra.”
The two indictments are separate, but Nocella said that three of the defendants — including former NBA player Damon Jones — are charged in both cases. Rozier was charged in the alleged sports betting scheme, while Billups faces charges related to the illegal poker games.
Nocella said that the sports betting scheme also included former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who pled guilty last year to charges related to illegal gambling. Porter schemed to take himself out of games early so that his prop bets would hit and his co-conspirators would win money. He was banned from the league for life and is awaiting sentencing in December. A prop bet (proposition bet) is a wager on a specific event or stat within a game that doesn’t affect the final score, such as the performance of an individual player.
Defendants charged in the alleged sports betting scheme received non-public information, such as when certain players would be sitting out “or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses,” according to Nocella.
“They relied on corrupt individuals, including Jones and Rozier,” the U.S. attorney added. In at least one instance, some of the defendants received non-public information by threatening Porter “because of his preexisting gambling debts.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed gambling issues in the league during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, specifically calling out prop betting.
“We accept betting is legal in roughly 35 states now in the United States. It’s unlikely to go away,” he said. “I think probably there should be more regulation, frankly. … I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”
“We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver added.
Rozier, a 10-year NBA veteran, has been investigated over mysterious gambling activity in the past. In March 2023, sportsbooks flagged strange betting activity on Rozier when he played for the Charlotte Hornets. During a game between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans, sportsbooks paused bets on Rozier after a professional gambler placed 30 wagers on the under for Rozier’s points, rebounds, and assists. Rozier left the game after just 10 minutes due to a foot injury, ESPN reported. Rozier reportedly met with NBA and FBI officials in 2023, but an NBA investigation ultimately determined that he was in the clear.
“The league conducted an investigation and did not find a violation of NBA rules,” NBA spokesman Mike Bass said earlier this year, according to The New York Post. “We are now aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York related to this matter and have been cooperating with that investigation.”
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The indictment on the alleged rigged poker games accuses defendants as early as 2019 of using “wireless cheating technology” in poker games across the United States. Victims would be lured into the games “by the chance to play alongside former professional athletes, who were known as ‘Face Cards,'” Nocella said.
“The so-called Face Cards included the defendant Chauncey Billups, who at the time of the scheme was a former NBA … and also Damon Jones,” the U.S. Attorney said.
Billups, a former star point guard and NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons, has been the Trail Blazers’ head coach since 2021. He holds a 117-212 record as the Trail Blazers head coach.
This is a developing story; refresh the page for updates.
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