FBI Busts High-Tech Poker Cheating Scheme Linking NBA Coaches and NY Mafia
The NBA has been caught up in a "wide-sweeping criminal enterprise" with links to the New York Mafia, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Current and former NBA coaches and players have been implicated in two separate illegal gambling and sports rigging operation that spanned years. A coordinated takedown across 11 states also saw 13 members of the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families arrested.
According to Patel, this multiyear investigation involved tens of millions of dollars of fraud, theft, and robbery, with charges including wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling.
Two Cases: Sports Betting and Rigged Poker Games
At the press conference, Joseph Nocella, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, explained two separate cases. The cases were separate, but both involved fraud and three overlapping defendants, one of whom was former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones.
"Brazen" Sports Corrpution
Nocella called it one of the most "brazen" sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States. From December 2022 to March 2024, six defendants allegedly exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams to place prop bets on individual player performance.
These prop bets included unders on points, rebounds, and assists. They were made with information about when players would sit out future games or pull out of actual games. In some instances, players altered their performance or took themselves out of the game.
During the press conference, it was explained that Terry Rozier told others he would leave a game early due to an injury. Members of the group placed over $200,000 on his under statistics in that game. After he exited the game after nine minutes, the associated bets paid out tens of thousands of dollars in profit.
High-Tech Cheating at Rigged Poker Games
Homeland Security Investigations said that "Operation Royal Flush" uncovered a sophisticated scheme to cheat victims out of $7 million. A total of 31 defendants, including professional athletes, allegedly participated in a scheme to rig illegal poker games across the United States, with games taking place in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami and Manhattan.
Allegedly, games in New York were backed by the Mafia, namely the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families.
According to Nocella, victims were lured to participate in the rigged games with the chance to play alongside former professional athletes. Those lured were called "fish" with the big-name athletes named "face cards." These "face cards" included Chancey Billups, Head Coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Damon Jones.
Victims didn't know everyone at the game, including the dealers and other players, who were in on it. They used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered to read the cards, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information to an off-site operator.
The operator then sent the information back via cellphone to a player at the table. They were known as the "quarterback" who would then signal the information they had received to others at the table.
Other methods included:
- Poker chip tray analysers that secretly read cards.
- Special contact lenses/glasses to read premarked cards
- X-ray tables that could read cards facedown.
While the mafia had pre-existing control over non-rigged illegal poker games around New York City, they eventually became involved in the rigged ones, organising them, taking a cut, and enforcing debt collection. The proceeds were then laundered through shell companies and cryptocurrency.
Nocella's message to those involved was clear.
"Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that."
Who is Involved?
The three NBA players or coaches involved are Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones. Rozier and Billups will appear in federal court where they were arrested, and will be arraigned on their indictments in Brooklyn at a future date.
Chauncey Billups
The most high-profile arrest is that of Chauncey Billups, the current head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year after a 17-year career that included earning the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player title in 2004 and being named an All-Star on five occasions.
He was the No. 3 overall pick in 1997 and finished his career with 15.2 points and 5.4 assists per game.
Terry Rozier
Drafted in the first round with the 16th overall pick in 2015, Terry Rozier has played for three teams over his career, most recently with the Miami Heat. He sat out the season opener on Wednesday night.
Rozier had previously attracted controversy for his performance in a March 2023 game while playing for the Charlotte Hornets against the New Orleans Pelicans. His attorney told ESPN that Rozier had met NBA and FBI officials in 2023, and following an NBA investigation, they found no wrongdoing.
Damon Jones
Damon Jones was indicted in both the sports betting and rigged poker games cases. He played for ten years during his 11-year NBA career before retiring in 2012. He subsequently joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as assistant coach from 2016-18.
Note: Picture Credits Erik Drost (Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier) licensed under CC BY 2.0
