by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News October 23, 2025
A current NBA player and coach have been arrested in connection with their alleged involvement in mafia-linked illegal gambling operations, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Thursday.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups were arrested, according to federal law enforcement officials. The NBA says both men have been placed on leave.
The investigation involved two major operations: One centered on the use of insider information to place bets on various NBA games and another revolved around rigged underground poker games, where “high-tech cheating technology” was used to steal millions from victims, U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
At least 31 defendants have been arrested in a sweeping federal investigation of illegal gambling schemes across 11 states which involved tens of millions of dollars.
“You hear a lot about our work of defending the homeland and crushing violent crime. Well, this work is also representative of a colossal portion of the FBI’s mandate to keep America safe and to keep our entertainment industry fair and secure,” Patel said.
Prosecutors also said mafia crime families were involved in the rigged poker games, which included X-ray machines to see face-down cards. They said members helped collect debts for a cut of the winnings.
Regarding the rigged poker games, organizers enlisted NBA figures — including Billups — to sit at the table and help make the games appear legitimate to victims, according to law enforcement.
The accused schemers used a shuffling machine to count the cards and predict who had the best hand, prosecutors allege. That information was then transmitted to someone sitting at the table who used signals to communicate it with others in on the scheme. They also used decoy cell phones and marked cards that could only be seen with special glasses, the indictment says.
Defendants named in the sports betting indictment are accused of exploiting insider information to bet on NBA games. The nature of this information included things like when players would be sitting out and when they would pull themselves out of a game due to injury, Nocella said.
The player information would be passed a long to other members of the scheme, who would wager money, documents say, mostly on individual player performances and statistics. Noecella said it involved the performance of players on several teams, including the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Los Angeles Lakers.
In one instance, the indictment details how Rozier allegedly faked an injury. He told another person involved that he was going to leave the game early, allowing members of the group to bet on the “under” of his statistics, as outlined in the indictment.
A third NBA figure, former player Damon Jones, is also being charged in the investigation, officials said. He is accused of leaking information about LeBron James’s injury to bettors, according to court documents.
NBA player, coach among 31 arrested by FBI in illegal gambling schemes added by Editor Two on
View all posts by Editor Two →