Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier among 34 arrested in sweeping mafia-linked NBA gambling probe

Long-simmering fears over America’s sports-betting boom erupted into scandal overnight as FBI agents arrested two high-profile NBA figures, including Hall of Fame guard and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, who authorities said was involved in a mob-run, rigged poker scheme and supplied information to sports bettors about his team.

Billups was arrested in Portland, Oregon, just hours after his Trail Blazers team lost its season-opening game Wednesday night.

He was charged with money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy over his alleged participation in rigged poker games that also involved members of Mafia crime families, also called La Cosa Nostra.

Agents also arrested Miami Heat player Terry Rozier, a former first-round draft pick, in Orlando. Authorities allege he participated in a sports betting operation that involved sharing information with bettors that wasn’t publicly available.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In all, 35 people were charged in connection with two cases, officials said.

At a news conference Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel said the “historic arrests,” spread across 11 states, and involved fraud that is “mind-boggling” - “tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multiyear investigation,” he said.

“Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA,” Mr Patel said, “but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra.”

The arrests were related to separate investigations.

One, called “Operation Royal Flush,” involved high-stakes poker games that were allegedly rigged. The FBI said that several members of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families were involved in staging the games.

According to investigators, former athletes like Billups were used to lure unsuspecting players to the table for games that were rigged using tampered shuffling machines, hidden cameras and even an “X-ray” table that could reveal cards.

The basketball players were called “Face Cards” and “received a portion of the criminal proceeds in exchange for their participation in the Scheme,” according to an indictment.

Prosecutors say Billups participated in an April 2019 game in Las Vegas that included a tampered shuffling machine.

While the indictment states that the rigged poker schemes defrauded victims of $7.15 million in total, the game allegedly involving Billups defrauded victims of “at least $50,000.”

The other case was dubbed by investigators “Nothing but Bet” and focused on suspicious bets placed on NBA games.

Prosecutors said the bets were traced back to inside information supplied by players, including Rozier, and others.

Billups is implicated but not named or charged in the sports betting case.

Before a game on March 24, 2023, according to the indictment, Billups told another defendant, Eric Earnest, “that the Trail Blazers were going to be tanking … to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick in the upcoming NBA draft,” and that several key players would be sitting out that night’s game.

According to the indictment, Mr Earnest then shared that information with another co-defendant and multiple bets were placed on the game, totalling around $100,000.

The Trail Blazers lost the game, 124-96. The indictment does not suggest that Billups played any role in the placing of bets or that he received any money in return for the inside information that was used.

The early morning arrests also included former NBA player Damon Jones, who was implicated in both cases.

Jones played parts of 11 seasons in the NBA, from 1998 to 2009, including five seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The felony charges threaten to send the basketball players and coach to prison for years, if prosecutors can earn convictions. Each of the two charges faced by Billups, Rozier and Jones carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

According to Joseph Nocella Jr, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, from 2022 to 2024, players, including Jones and Rozier aided a network of bettors by supplying inside information that included when players would sit out games or when they might pull themselves early for “purported injuries or illnesses.”

In a statement Thursday afternoon, NBA spokesman Mark Broussard said the league is still reviewing the indictments.

“Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities,” he said.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

The Heat did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Trail Blazers said in a statement that Tiago Splitter will serve as interim head coach.

Billups, 49, appeared in five all-star games and was the NBA Finals MVP in 2004, as he helped lead his Detroit Pistons squad to a championship. He earned $106 million during his playing career, according to Spotrac.com.

He went into coaching shortly after retiring in 2014 and has been the head coach in Portland since 2021.

The Boston Celtics made Rozier the 16th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft out of the University of Louisville. He was largely a role player there before finding the starting lineup with the Charlotte Hornets from 2019 to 2024.

Rozier, 31, was traded to the Heat last January. He had been reportedly under investigation following unusual betting activity related to his performance in a 2023 game. The NBA cleared him of wrongdoing in July.

According to the indictment, Rozier alerted bettors he would remove himself from a March 23, 2023, game early, citing a supposed injury.

Those bettors then placed wagers that Rozier would underperform in the game and fail to reach the oddsmakers’ projected marks. Rozier left the game after 9½ minutes, scoring 5 points and recording two assists, well short of his season averages and sportsbooks’ betting lines.

In a statement, Jim Trusty, Rozier’s lawyer, said that Rozier is “not a gambler” and that “he looks forward to winning this fight.” He called it a “non-case” and said investigators had previously characterised the player “as a subject, not a target.”

“(But) at 6am this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel,” he said.

“It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self-surrender they opted for a photo op. They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case. They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly incredible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing.”

Rozier was expected to appear in federal court in Orlando on Thursday afternoon, and Billups was due in a Portland courtroom. According to court filings, prosecutors are not seeking to detain Billups, Rozier or Jones pending trial.

The indictment states that Jones, 49, on multiple occasions following his NBA career, “sold or attempted to sell” inside information to gamblers.

The indictment called Jones an “unofficial coach” with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2022-2023 season and says he used his personal relationship with others, including a team trainer and star player LeBron James, to extract information.

On February 9, 2023, the indictment alleges, Jones learned that James, who was just two days removed from setting the NBA’s all-time scoring record, would be unable to play in that night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” he texted, according to the indictment.

James, who was not implicated or specifically named in the indictment, missed the game and the Lakers lost, 115-106. A spokesman for the Lakers did not respond to a request for comment.

In a separate court filing, prosecutors said Jones demanded his payment for a rigged game in East Hampton, New York, even before it began.

The organiser sent Jones $US2,500 later that day, prosecutors said.

Others coached Jones in real time on how to cheat, guiding him through it by likening other players at the table to NBA superstars, according to the indictment.

“Remember if you have to think hard about a call … just fold,” read one text message to Jones. It counselled him to think of one of the other participants in the scheme playing that night as “Steph,” a reference to Stephen Curry, and another as “the Bron,” referring to James.

Jones responded, according to court filings: “Y’all know I know what I’m doing!! Let me hibachi like Gilbert Arenas,” a reference to the former NBA star arrested on illegal gambling charges earlier this year.

According to court filings, Jones filed for bankruptcy twice after his playing career ended, in 2013 and ‘15. At the time of the more recent filing, he owed $47,589 to the Bellagio, the Las Vegas-based casino, according to court records.

Seven years since the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports betting, thirty-eight states and Washington, DC, now offer some form of legal sports gambling.

Although professional sports leagues have partnered with gambling operators and cashed in on the arrangement, they’ve also been wary about pitfalls posed by rampant wagering.

Federal investigators have been reportedly looking into suspicious gambling activity involving former Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley, centred on games from the 2023-2024 season. Beasley, currently a free agent, has not been charged with any crimes.

And in 2024, Jontay Porter, a former Toronto Raptors player, was given a lifetime ban from the NBA over accusations of giving confidential information to bettors and placing bets on NBA games. He pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scandal.

Nocella said Porter was threatened by some of the men charged Thursday, made susceptible “because of his preexisting gambling debts.”

© 2025 , The Washington Post