Federal agents announced a sweeping series of arrests Thursday in what they described as a sprawling illegal gambling and corruption probe that has ensnared several NBA figures and members of organized crime. Officials called it one of the most significant federal crackdowns on sports corruption in years.
At a press conference in Brooklyn, FBI Director Kash Patel said the coordinated investigation reached deep into both professional basketball and organized crime networks. “We are here in New York to announce a historic arrest across a wide, sweeping criminal enterprise that envelops both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra,” Patel said.
Among those charged are Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and retired NBA player Damon Jones, according to NBC News. They are among more than 30 individuals named across two separate federal indictments.
In a statement, the NBA confirmed that Billups and Rozier have been suspended indefinitely pending the outcome of the investigation. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the league said.
Prosecutors allege that the first scheme involved manipulated poker games where 31 suspects — including Billups — used high-tech devices to cheat players out of millions. The events were reportedly financed by members of the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families, according to U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
As USA Today reports:
As early as 2019, the defendants used “wireless cheating technology” to run rigged poker games in cities including Manhattan, the Hamptons, Las Vegas, and Miami, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said at a news conference on Oct. 23. The victims, known as “fish,” were lured into the games with the chance to gamble with celebrities known as “face cards,” including Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones, who were among more than 30 people indicted in separate but overlapping federal investigations.
“What the victims, the fish, didn’t know was that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to players, including the face cards, was in on the scam,” Nocella said.
The defendants used “very sophisticated cheating technologies” including a rigged shuffling machine stolen from someone at gunpoint, Nocella said. Off-the-shelf shuffling machines were also “secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand and relay that information to an off-site operator,” he said.
The off-site operator allegedly sent the information back to someone at the table dubbed “the quarterback” who secretly signaled other players in order to win the games.
A second case focused on an insider betting ring that prosecutors described as “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized.” Six defendants, including Rozier, were charged in that conspiracy. Jones was implicated in both cases.
The probe also builds on the 2024 conviction of former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
“This alleged illegal gambling operation hustled unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and created a financial pipeline for La Cosa Nostra,” said Christopher Raia, the FBI’s New York assistant director in charge.
Billups, arrested in Portland, is a 17-year NBA veteran and five-time All-Star who led the Detroit Pistons to their 2004 championship and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2024. Rozier was detained in Orlando after investigators flagged suspicious betting activity linked to his game performance. Jones, 49, a former Cleveland Cavaliers guard, played for multiple franchises during his career.
Federal authorities called the arrests a “watershed moment” in efforts to protect sports integrity amid the rapid expansion of legalized gambling. Officials vowed to continue pursuing those who “blur the line between competition and corruption.”
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Apply same to NFL WNBA Hockey?? boxing
all players and managers involved in this should get the “banned for life” sentence from every playing again.