NBA player and head coach among 30 arrested in illegal US gambling investigation | NBA

The NBA, one of the most famous sports leagues in the world, has been linked to illegal gambling. again on Thursday after two high-profile stars were arrested in a wide-ranging federal investigation. Chauncey Billups, a Hall of Fame player who is now coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was arrested in connection with a mob-linked poker operation, and Miami Heat star Terry Rozier is accused of participating in a game-rigging scheme.

“Today we are here in New York to announce a historic arrest in a massive criminal enterprise,” FBI Director Cash Patel said at a press conference. press conference unsealing charges Thursday. “This is an illegal gambling and sports rigging operation that has been going on for many years.”

Federal prosecutors unsealed two indictments Thursday and announced they had arrested “more than 30 people” in several states as part of a federal investigation into “sports fraud” and illegal gambling that authorities say involved the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese crime families.

On Thursday, Patel said the defendants face charges including fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery and illegal gambling.

“The fraud is staggering,” Patel said. “We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft and robbery.”

Joseph Nocella, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said Thursday that the first indictment involves sports betting and six defendants who he said were involved in a sports betting scheme that “used confidential information about the National Basketball Associations of athletes and teams.”

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the alleged operation focused on “professional basketball, where players and associates allegedly used inside information to manipulate bets on major sports betting platforms.”

Tisch described an alleged incident that occurred in March 2024 involving Rozier, who is currently a guard for the Miami Heat but then played for the Charlotte Hornets.

Tisch said Rozier “allegedly made it clear to those close to him that he planned to leave the game early due to a suspected injury.”

“Using this information, members of the group placed bets of more than $200,000 on his understated stats,” she said, adding, “Rosier was out of the game after just nine minutes, and those bets were paid out, generating tens of thousands of dollars in profits.”

“The proceeds were later delivered to his home,” she said.

The second indictment “involves 31 defendants,” including Billups and ex. NBA player Damon Jones.

The defendants allegedly “participated in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games.”

The alleged illegal rigged poker games began in 2019 and took place throughout the U.S., including in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami and Manhattan, and were supported by the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families, prosecutors said.

The defendants, prosecutors said Thursday, allegedly used high-tech fraud techniques to “steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games that were secretly recorded.”

Officials said the operation targeted victims known as “fish” who were “lured to participate in these rigged games with the opportunity to play alongside former professional athletes,” which it said were called “face cards.”

The so-called “face cards” included Billups and Jones, officials said.

“What the victims didn't know was that everyone else involved in the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, was involved in the fraud,” Nocella said. “Once the gaming began, the defendants defrauded victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game.”

Prosecutors say the defendants used “highly sophisticated cheating technology,” including rigged card shuffling machines, poker chip tray analyzers, special contact lenses and an X-ray poker table that could read cards.

According to Nocella, the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families “had pre-existing control over illegal illegal poker games throughout New York City” and therefore “as a result, they also became involved in rigged poker games, helping to organize the games, taking on some of the litigation and working to collect debts.”

Authorities say the defendants “laundered their proceeds, including through cash exchanges, the use of multiple shell companies, and through cryptocurrency transfers as part of the scheme.”

Nocella also alleged that the defendants and their co-conspirators “also committed acts of violence, including robbing a person at gunpoint to obtain a rigged shuffling machine and extorting victims to ensure they would pay off their gambling debt.”

Nocella stressed that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Thursday NBA made a statement saying it was reviewing the indictments. The report said Rozier and Billups were placed on leave immediately. “We take these allegations seriously and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the organization said.

Rozier was taken into custody in Orlando early Thursday morning. His team did not immediately comment on the arrest.

Rozier's lawyer, Jim Trusty, said prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of incredibly unlikely sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing.” Trusty previously told ESPN that Rozier was told the initial investigation showed he had done nothing wrong after he met with the NBA and FBI officials in 2023.

The case was brought by the same U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted the case. former NBA player Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew from games early, citing illness or injury, so those in the know could win by betting that he would not live up to expectations. NBA later banned Porter for life from the league.

The game in question involving Rozier took place on March 23, 2023, between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier played the first 10 minutes of that game – and not only did not return that night, citing a leg problem, but he also did not play again that season. Charlotte had eight games remaining and was out of the playoff picture, so it didn't seem particularly unusual for Rozier to sit out the final games of the season.

In that March 23 game, Rozier finished with five points, four rebounds and two assists in the first period—a productive quarter, but well below his usual full-game total.

Rosier has $160 million in career earningsand this is the final year of a four-year, $96 million contract. During his playing career, Billups was a five-time All-Star and won a championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. He retired in 2014 and has been Portland's head coach since 2021.