NBA stars and mafia among dozens arrested in illegal gambling crackdown

An NBA player and coach were among dozens of people arrested as part of a sweeping FBI investigation into alleged Mafia-linked illegal sports betting and poker games.

Federal prosecutors charged Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups in separate indictments on Thursday. Both men deny these accusations.

Rozier, 31, is among six people arrested over alleged betting irregularities. Among them are NBA players accused of faking injuries to influence gambling markets.

Billups, a Hall of Fame player turned coach, is one of 31 people charged in a separate illegal poker case involving retired players and the Mafia.

That case, which prosecutors said involved four… The Five Major Crime Families of New Yorkrevealed an alleged scheme to lure victims into playing rigged poker games alongside prominent sports stars before stealing millions of dollars.

They did so using technology including special contact lenses, glasses that can read pre-marked cards and an X-ray table, according to authorities.

The league said in a statement that Rozier and Billups have been placed on immediate leave while it reviews the federal indictments.

He added: “We take these accusations very seriously, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

Rozier’s lawyer denied the allegations to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, saying: “Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he is looking forward to winning this fight.”

He appeared in federal court in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday and was released on bail after offering his Florida home – worth $6 million (£4.5 million) – as collateral, according to local media.

Local media reported that Billups, who has been coaching the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021, was arrested in Portland, Oregon, and was arraigned in court on Thursday. He is expected to post significant bond for his release as well.

His lawyer, Chris Heywood, also denied the accusations, telling CBS in a statement: “He will face these charges with the same tenacity that has defined his 28-year career. We look forward to our day in court.”

FBI Director Kash Patel held a news conference with other prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday where he announced the indictments.

He described the arrests as “extraordinary” and said there was a “coordinated takedown operation in 11 states.”

“We are talking about fraud, theft and theft amounting to tens of millions of dollars through an investigation that lasted several years,” he said.

US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Joseph Nocella Jr., said all defendants were innocent until proven guilty, but warned: “Your winning streak is over. Your luck is out.”

Prosecutors said the first case involved players and associates who allegedly used information not publicly available to manipulate bets on major gambling platforms.

Nocella called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legal.”

Seven NBA games between February 2023 and March 2024 are scheduled as part of the case. Rozier is said to have participated in a game between the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans, when he was playing for the Hornets.

Rozier allegedly told a friend that he would leave the game early due to the injury. The friend and his associates then placed bets, or directed others to bet, “more than $200,000” that Rozier would perform below expectations in the game, prosecutors said.

They said he left the game after nine minutes, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in betting profits for participants.

During the game, Rozier scored only five points before exiting due to an injury to his right foot, according to the official NBA match report.

Before that game, the average playing time was 35 minutes and about 21 points per game.

“With the NBA season approaching, his career has effectively been put on hold, not by injury but by integrity,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

James Trusty, Rozier’s attorney, said in a statement that prosecutors “appear to be taking astonishingly unreliable sources at their word rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was acquitted by the NBA and these prosecutors have remanded this unimportant case.”

Trusty said he had been representing Rozier for more than a year, and said prosecutors described Rozier as a subject, not a target, until they informed him that FBI agents had arrested the player at a hotel Thursday morning.

Former NBA player Damon Jones was also arrested as part of the investigation.

Jones reportedly participated in two of the specific games — when the Los Angeles Lakers met the Milwaukee Bucks in February 2023, and a game in January 2024 between the Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder.

Sports betting was banned in most of the United States from 1992 until 2018, when the Supreme Court turned regulation of the practice over to the states.

Since the repeal of the federal ban, sports betting has exploded with major sports leagues and media companies striking deals with gambling companies to enter the billion-dollar industry.

The second indictment announced on Thursday includes 31 defendants who allegedly participated in it Scheme to rig illegal poker games And steal millions of dollars.

The case involved 13 members and associates of the Bonanno, Genovese and Gambino crime families in New York.

Nocella said the targeted victims were lured to play games with former professional athletes, including Billups and Jones, in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and the Hamptons.

Victims are “robbed” of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game, he said.

He said the defendants used “highly sophisticated technology” such as modified off-the-shelf shuffling machines that could read cards. Some of the defendants used contact lenses and special glasses to read the marked cards, and an X-ray table that could read the cards when they were upside down.

“What [the victims] “I didn’t know that anyone else in the game of poker — from the dealer to the players — was involved in the scam,” Nocella said.

When people refused to pay, organized crime families used threats and intimidation to get them to hand over the money, Tesch said.

Charges include theft, extortion, bank fraud, bank fraud and illegal gambling.

The plot tricked victims out of $7 million, with one of them losing $1.8 million, officials said.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Christopher Raya, assistant director of the FBI’s New York Field Office, adding that the FBI is working hard to ensure members of Mafia families “cannot continue to wreak havoc in our communities.”