NBA Coach, Player Arrested in Illegal Gambling Probe
Coach Chauncey Billups is allegedly connected to “an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia.”
Gee, who would have thought that pushing pro-sports gambling would lead to players and coaches taking part?
Authorities arrested Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier for allegedly partaking in illegal gambling.
Overall, the probe includes at least 31 arrests.
The charges include wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, and illegal gambling.
One source told ABC News that Billups’ case is in connection with “an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia.”
The NBA investigated and found nothing.
From The New York Times live blog:
The indictments charge two different schemes — one a sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information, the other a nationwide scheme to rig poker games. The first includes six defendants, the other more than 30. Three individuals are charged in both indictments.
Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney, is now describing the schemes in detail. He says that the Mafia — members of several different families — became involved in the rigged games that the defendants were already participating in because of their preexisting control of illegal poker games in New York City.
Nocella says that other crimes stemmed from the scheme, including gunpoint robbery and extortion.
Nocella said that the sports betting scheme was focused on using non-public information about N.B.A. athletes and teams, such as when players would be sitting out or leaving a game early, to set up fraudulent bets. Most were prop bets, which are wagers on individual events or performances not linked to the outcome of a game. Those are easier to manipulate.
Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said that the sports betting scheme involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, involving a network of proxies or straw bettors, and that most of the allegedly fraudulent bets were successful.
Another indictment accused “the defendants of operating rigged poker games at locations on Lexington Avenue and Washington Place in Manhattan” with organized crime families.
In 2023, the NBA received a tip of “unusual betting activity” over a March game with Rozier, who played for the Charlotte Hornets at the time, against the New Orleans Pelicans:
A game involving Rozier that has been in question was played on March 23, 2023, a matchup between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier played the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that game — and not only did not return that night, citing a foot issue, but did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was not in playoff contention, so it did not seem particularly unusual that Rozier was shut down for the season’s final games.
In that March 23 game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in that opening period — a productive quarter but well below his usual total output for a full game.
Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.
Knew it wasn’t possible to play this bad in a game LMFAOOOOpic.twitter.com/61HBA5siaG https://t.co/E8ZMxGJAxr
— Old NBA Tweets (@oldnbatweetz) October 23, 2025
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Comments
man
if only they worked half this hard to uncover the rigging of the potus 2020 elections
Some of the officiating this season so far in the NFL has made me a bit suspect….just saying.
Not only NFL. NCAA just fired a ref who “didn’t see” a flagrant foul in the Auburn-Georgia game earlier this year. If a defensive player hugs a pass receiver like a long lost brother before he catches the ball, it’s pretty obvious. There was another regarding a fumble. Too bad they selectively “didn’t see” dozens of others in multiple games.
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The house always wins.
The dozens of casinos, including Trump’s casinos, that have filed for bankruptcy would suggest that this is not the case.
The NBA has been a rigged game for a long time. Its a caricature of itself.
Saw a few posts claiming Sen Cory Booker was somehow implicated. Wasn’t able to find any details.
No word on whether or not T. Bibe was involved.
Bonus: Cory Booker ever mention T-Bone in any fundraising emails? If so, he committed the same federal wire fraud crime that George Santos was convicted of.
On the Poker: Best advice I ever got was, “If you don’t know for an absolute fact who the ‘mark’ is, then YOU are the ‘mark’.”