In what will go down as one of the biggest scandals in NBA history, current Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups has been arrested in connection with a federal investigation involving rigged poker and the mafia.
Early on Thursday morning, reports emerged that Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was taken into custody by federal officials over allegations that he influenced NBA games he was involved in to aid illegal bets. However, that was just one of two huge arrests that have rocked the league.
NBA legend and Trail Blazers coach Chauncy Billups was also arrested on charges related to illegal gambling. However, ABC News revealed his arrest had nothing to do with the investigation that snapped up Rozier and is in relation to a separate FBI investigation into rigged poker games with links to the mob.
The five-time NBA All-Star and one-time champion was one of the most respected players in the game during the 2000s. After being the 3rd pick overall in the 1997 NBA Draft, it took Billups several seasons to finally find himself in the league.
Once he did, he became a leader of a Detroit Pistons team that was a perennial title contender. Furthermore, he earned the moniker of “Mr. Big Shot” for his clutch abilities late in his career.
Details of the poker scheme involving Chauncey Billups
While the NBA will breathe a sigh of relief that the Trail Blazers coach didn’t take part in rigging games, this is still a major scandal for the league. Let’s take a look at all the key details revealed by New York officials and the FBI about the wild poker scheme Chauncey Billups got himself wrapped up in.
- The scheme goes as far back as 2019
- The victims were nicknamed “fish” and were lured into the games by getting to play with former pro athletes, or “facecards,” like Billups
- Everyone except the “fish,” including the dealers, was in on the scam, and victims would lose hundreds of thousands to millions in each game
- The conspirators used shuffling machines that were secretly altered to read cards and determine which players had the best hands, and that was relayed to “an offsite operator”
- The operator would then text the info to a co-conspirator at the table, also known as the “quarterback,” and they would secretly signal to others to shift the game in their favor
- They also used poker chip tray analyzers that secretly read cards using a hidden camera, special glasses that could read pre-marked cards, and an X-ray table that could read cards when they were face down
- 31 defendants are involved in the rigged poker scheme
- The rigged underground games occurred across 11 states and in major cities like Manhattan, Las Vegas, and Miami
- Eleven-year NBA veteran Damon Jones is part of both the poker scheme and the separate investigation into game rigging that got Terry Rozier arrested
- The New York mafia families involved with the poker games in the city were backed by the Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families
- The crime families already had ongoing illegal games and linked up to work with the schemers to get a cut of the income from games
- Violence was also used to extort victims to get the money they lost in games
- Illegal gambling, money laundering, and extortion are among the charges against the various defendants
