NBA Players and Coaches Arrested in Massive Gambling and Corruption Scheme

The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat were arrested Thursday along with more than 30 other people in a takedown of two sprawling gambling operations that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA athletes and rigged poker games backed by Mafia families. The arrests create a massive cloud for the NBA, which opened its season this week, and show how certain types of wagers are vulnerable to massive fraud in the growing, multibillion-dollar legal sports-betting industry.

Key Takeaways:

• The arrests involve Portland coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, who face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges, along with former NBA assistant coach and player Damon Jones.
• The defendants allegedly participated in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games tied to La Cosa Nostra organized crime families that cheated unsuspecting gamblers out of at least $7-million.
• The sports betting scheme involved accessing private information from NBA players or coaches, which was used to place wagers, with some players altering their performance or taking themselves out of games early to rig prop bets.
• The poker scheme lured unwitting players into rigged games with the chance to compete against former professional basketball players, using sophisticated cheating technology, such as altered card-shuffling machines and hidden cameras.
• Roughly 20 other defendants appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, with many pleading not guilty and being detained due to their violent crimes or lengthy criminal records and ties to organized crime.
• The scheme often made use of illegal poker games run by New York crime families, which required them to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese, and Bonnano crime families.
• Players such as Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier allegedly earned tens of millions of dollars in their respective careers, with Billups having earned approximately $106-million and Rozier making about $160-million in his stops in Boston, Miami, and Charlotte.

Statistics:

• At least $7-million was allegedly cheated from unsuspecting gamblers in the high-stakes card game scheme.
• The sports betting scheme involved tens of thousands of dollars in winnings for some gamblers.
• Tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft were committed across a multiyear investigation, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
• Chauncey Billups earned approximately $106-million in his 17-year career.
• Terry Rozier made about $160-million in his stops in Boston, Miami, and Charlotte.

Sources:

• Alanna Durkin Ricther, Tim Reynolds, Philip Marcelo; Associated Press: New York --