NBAers Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier arrested in major Mafia gambling bust involving 4 crime families

Jump to...

Print...

(by Pat Milton, Jacob Rosen, Graham Kates, Anna Schecter, CBS News) – Dozens of people including former and current NBA players and a coach have been charged in connection to two investigations into an alleged widespread sports betting scheme and organized crime ring, the FBI and federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Among those taken into custody today are Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat point guard Terry Rozier. Billups, a five-time All-Star who played for multiple NBA teams before becoming the Trail Blazers coach, was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame last year. He was arrested in Portland and Rozier was arrested in Orlando.

Former NBA player Damon Jones was also arrested in connection to the sports betting charges investigation.

The arrests are in relation to two federal criminal cases:

One involves a sports betting ring involving former and current NBA players, including some who allegedly faked injuries.
The other case involves illegal high-stakes poker games involving coaches and operated by organized crime figures. Three people, including Jones, were arrested in connection to both schemes, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Thirty-one people are being charged in the second case, and some of those defendants are allegedly connected to organized crime families known to law enforcement, prosecutors said.
Rozier was arrested in connection with the first case, while Billups was arrested in the second one.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the charges and the arrests in both cases include wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery and illegal gambling.

Patel called the arrests “extraordinary,” saying that they stemmed from a “coordinated takedown across 11 states.”

“Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we have also interred and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchesi crime families,” Patel said.

[The mob is accused of paying Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones, 49, to act as “face cards”* to attract high rollers to big money poker games that were fixed using sophisticated tech, including rigged card shufflers and special glasses and contact lenses, according to an indictment by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York]. *In a gambling scam, the “face card” is a celebrity or well-known individual who draws new players in to rigged games].

Joseph Nocella, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the defendants allegedly used a “variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies,” including self-shuffling machines that had been secretly altered to read the cards in the deck and predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, which was then allegedly sent to an off-site operator. The off-site operator then allegedly sent the information via cell phone to the co-conspirator at the table, who was known as the quarterback. The quarterback then allegedly secretly signaled the information to others and at the table, and together, they used that information to win the games, Nocella said.

Miami Heat’s Terry Rozier

Nocella said that in the first case that involves Rozier, the defendants allegedly profited off of games played by the Charlotte Hornets, Portland Trail Blazers, the L.A. Lakers and the Toronto Rangers. The defendants allegedly used nonpublic information to place bets of hundreds of thousands of dollars, mostly in the form of prop bets* (see Background below) on individual player performance, Nocella said.

[In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told others he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing others to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said].

“Most of these bets succeeded, and the intended losses were in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Nocella said. “The defendants then laundered their illegal winnings in various ways — peer-to-peer platforms, bank wires and simple cash exchanges” and “multiple shell companies and cryptocurrency transfers”].

Nocella said the investigation does not involve college basketball, and added that the investigation is still ongoing.

The NBA did not immediately comment [but later announced both Billups and Rozier have been placed on leave].

[The poker case involving Billups was called “Operation Royal Flush” while Rozier’s was called “Operation Nothing But Bet”].

This is not the first high-profile incident involving alleged illegal betting and the NBA. Earlier this year in a separate case, former NBA player Gilbert Arenas was arrested for allegedly operating an illegal gambling and poker ring out of a California home that he owned.

[The charges come less than a year after former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter pleaded guilty to tipping off gamblers to games he purposely was going to rig — and earning them $1 million — in an effort to clear his own gambling debt].

Published at CBS on Oct 23 with 16ABC WAPT and NY Post. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.

Questions

NOTE to Students: Before answering the questions, read the “Background” and watch the video under “Resources” below.

1. What are the two separate federal cases charging 31 people including an NBA player and coach in gambling scams?

2. What charges have been brought against individuals involved in both cases, according to FBI Director Kash Patel?

3. Name the 4 of the 5 Cosa Nostra mob families involved in the scams.

4. How were Billups and Damon Jones involved in the mob’s rigged poker games?

5. How did the poker fraud work?

6. What is Rozier accused of doing in the first case?

7. When did these investigations begin? (see videos under “Resources”)

8. The Post reports that federal court documents allege that while coach, Chauncey Billups also allegedly tipped off a betting ring that his team was planning to tank a game against the Chicago Bulls on March 24, 2023 and that the Trail Blazers’ best player wouldn’t be playing.
After Billups’ alleged tip-off, the Blazers were smoked by the Bulls 124-96.
Members of the scheme placed $132,000 in bets against the Blazers that night and walked away happy, an indictment alleges.

What is your reaction to these top athletes who made it to the NBA – in Billups’ case being a five-time All-Star who was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame last year and made over $100 million as a player, and his team allegedly “tanking” a game in 2023 – and in Rozier’s case making $160M+ in his career so far:
a) How would you describe their actions?
b) What harm if any, do you think their cheating does to the game? – and to their younger fans especially?
c) Would learning that of your favorite pro player on any type of team affect your enthusiasm for the sport?
d) What responsibility do professional sports leagues and their coaches have to teach these elite athletes about morality and ethics?

Explain your answers.

CHALLENGE: Public schools used to teach students the Ten Commandments – and they were also posted in classrooms until 1980. The Ten Commandments instill morals by providing a framework for ethical behavior, emphasizing respect for others and for God, and promoting values like honesty and integrity.
Read the 10 Commandments.
Google AI notes: “The major world religions that follow or are significantly influenced by a version of the Ten Commandments are the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”
Some states are resuming the teaching of the 10 commandments in public schools.
Do you think following God’s 10 Commandments would cause people to be more ethical? Explain your answer.

Background

A proposition bet, or “prop bet,” is a wager on a specific event within a game that doesn’t directly affect the game’s final outcome, such as the number of points a particular player will score or the number of yards a player will run.

Here is how a typical prop bet scheme works:

Insiders provide information: Players, coaches, or other team staff with inside knowledge may provide information about a player’s performance to co-conspirators. This information can be used to place prop bets with a higher chance of winning.

Spot-fixing: This occurs when a particular element of a game is fixed for a guaranteed result, without necessarily affecting the overall game’s outcome. For example, a player could be paid to intentionally miss a certain number of shots to ensure a prop bet for the “under” hits.

High-stakes gambling: These schemes often involve high-stakes gambling rings and significant payouts. This makes them attractive targets for organized crime, such as the mafia.

Recent example of a prop bet scheme: In October 2025, NBA player Terry Rozier was arrested in connection with an illegal sports betting ring that used insider information to manipulate prop bets. According to reports, Rozier and other defendants accessed private information from NBA players and coaches and used it for their own betting profit. This prompted the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York to call the case “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes” in the era of legalized online sports betting.
(from Google AI Overview, Oct. 23)