The biggest betting scandal in modern U.S. sports history erupted yesterday, as the FBI arrested 34 suspects, including Portland Trail Blazers coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, over alleged involvement in illegal sports gambling and rigged poker games tied to New York’s Cosa Nostra Mafia families.
The FBI investigation, which spanned 11 states, culminated in the arrests of 34 individuals after co-ordinated raids began around 10 a.m.
Billups and Rozier are charged in two overlapping, but separate federal cases.
A 49-year-old former NBA star turned coach, Billups is among 31 suspects accused of running rigged, high-stakes poker games that allegedly used tampered shuffling machines and X-ray technology to read face-down cards and cheat victims out of millions.
Miami Heat guard Rozier, 31, is among six defendants arrested for sports-betting offences, including match manipulation and the use of insider information to influence betting markets.
Conspiracy
Both illicit schemes link to New York’s Mafia.
Billups and Rozier face charges of wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and involvement in illegal gambling operations. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20-years. Both appeared in court yesterday.
Rozier, arrested in Orlando, Florida, denies the allegations and was released on bail after posting his Florida home, valued at roughly US$6 million (£4.5 million), as collateral. Billups, detained in Portland, Oregon, is awaiting bail conditions.
The NBA has put Rozier and Billups on immediate suspension while it reviews the federal indictments.
Billups is next scheduled to appear in federal court on November 24. Rozier on December 8.
Also arrested as part of the spiralling criminal network is former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones, who is one of three implicated in both cases.
Mafia Backed
The arrests were announced by FBI Director Kash Patel at a news conference in Brooklyn, New York — the epicentre of both cases.
Patel stated the illegal gambling scheme had moved tens of millions of dollars and directly implicated 13 members from four of New York’s five infamous Cosa Nostra families, who have ruled New York City’s Italian-American Mafia since 1931.
He named the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese families, calling the scale of the fraud “mind-boggling”.
And Patel labelled the basketball scandal: “The NBA’s insider-trading moment.”
Brazen Match-Fixing
US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said the scheme was “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalised in the United States”.
The FBI confirmed that seven NBA games played between February 2023 and March 2024 are under investigation, including one involving Rozier, between the Charlotte Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans.
Rozier, playing for the Hornets, allegedly tipped off a friend that he would exit early due to injury. The friend bet more than US$200,000 (£149,000) on that outcome. Rozier, according to the NBA official match notes, duly left the game with a sore right foot.
Former NBA player, Cavaliers guard Damon Jones, was also arrested as part of the same investigation. Jones, 30, is said to have been involved in two of the identified games: Lakers vs Bucks (February 2023) and Lakers vs Thunder (January 2023).
In addition to Rozier and Jones, bettors Eric Earnest, Marves Fairley, Shane Hennen and Deniro Laster were named as defendants in the sports betting indictment.
The NBA said: “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
Violent Illegal Gambling Ring
The second arm of the FBI’s multi-state case–an illegal poker operation–involved the arrests of 31 people, including 13 Cosa Nostra members.
Nocella said the ring lured victims with the appeal of playing alongside ex-professionals like Billups and Jones before cheating them out of an estimated US$7 million (£5.2m) in total. One player is even said to have lost US$1.8 million (£1.3m).
Each game revolved around the “fish”, with every other player at the table colluding to ensure their defeat. The Mafia then resorted to extortion and violence to ensure any debts were paid. Billups is accused of helping organise and play in several of these games.
Charges on this indictment include robbery, extortion, wire fraud, bank fraud and illegal gambling.
These arrests mark a watershed moment in U.S. sports integrity. It is the highest-profile scandal yet in almost an era of legalised online betting.
For those who once argued the necessity of PASPA to safeguard sporting integrity, it also represents the worst-case scenario.
