Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups charged in illegal poker operation tied to Mafia: Sources

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: ABC News

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups charged in illegal poker operation tied to Mafia: Sources

Heat guard Terry Rozier was arrested in a separate but related betting case.

ByAaron Katersky
October 23, 2025, 9:04 AM ET

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups has been charged in an illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Billups, in his fifth season as head coach, was arrested in Oregon, where is expected to make an initial court appearance on Thursday, sources said.

{snip}

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/miami-heat-terry-rozier-charged-nba-betting/story?id=126789368

[twodogsbarking]

1. And y'all trust professional sports? Well, ok then.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Why shouldn't we?

Because a handful of guys play poker, which has nothing to do with basketball?

[twodogsbarking]

6. It is another topic but makes me wonder at times. Money and all.

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. Money?

Yeah, money's pretty important.

[MichMan]

11. There are allegations that Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat faked injuries and for financial gains

Also, the Poker games were fixed with altered card shufflers and x rays. Estimates are that people lost $7 million.

[Oeditpus Rex]

15. What do poker ganes have to do with professional sports?

[MichMan]

16. From fraud to extortion, what NBA stars and the mafia are accused of in stunning charges

The second indictment charges 31 defendants with scheming to rig illegal poker games. The defendants include Portland Trail Blazers coach and former Detroit Pistons star Chauncey Billups and former Cleveland Cavaliers player and coach Damon Jones.

The defendants allegedly used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in secretly-fixed underground poker games. For instance, Nocella said they used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that were altered to read the deck's cards and relay information about which player likely had the best hand.

"The defendants fleeced the victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game," Nocella said.

This scheme also involved the mafia, according to Nocella. That was because members of the Bonano, Gambino and Genovese organized-crime families already had control over non-rigged, illegal poker games in New York City.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2025/10/23/nba-mafia-charges-sports-betting-gambling-poker/86853880007/

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. So there happen to be an NBA player and a couple of (ex-) coaches involved

That's hardly grounds to indict or slander professional sports overall.

[MichMan]

20. Not all sports, just the NBA

Billips is not an ex coach, he is the current Head Coach of the Portland Trailblazers

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. Thus he parentheseLes

And my point stands.

[MichMan]

17. Why was Chauncey Billups arrested?

Billups, on the other hand, was allegedly involved in rigged poker games tied to the mafia, the FBI said. Victims would be lured into playing with a well-known former NBA player in Billups only to be cheated out of their money using technology that ranged from rigged shuffling machines to X-rays that could read cards that were face down on the table to contact lenses that could identify marked cards, according to the indictment. The FBI said the games were tied to La Cosa Nostra, the Italian mafia.

"The mafia … had preexisting control over non-rigged, illegal poker games around New York City," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said Thursday. "As a result, they also became involved in the rigged poker games, helping to organize the games and taking a cut of the proceedings -- and working to enforce the collection of debts."

Billups, however, might also be tied to sharing insider information with bettors as Blazers coach. Though he was not named in the Rozier indictment, a person referred to as "Co-Conspirator 8" matches Billups' description: "a resident of Oregon" and "an NBA player from approximately 1997 through 2014, and an NBA coach since at least 2021." The indictment alleges that Co-Conspirator 8 supplied information about the Blazers resting key players ahead of a March 24, 2023, contest against the Bulls before it was public. Damian Lillard, Jusuf Nurkic, Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons all sat out in a game the Blazers lost by 28 points.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-illegal-gambling-investigation-explained/

[MichMan]

18. Who is Damon Jones, and how is he involved?

Damon Jones is an 11-year NBA veteran, most prominently with the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers, who would later go on to become an assistant coach for the Cavaliers for three seasons. He is the only NBA figure to have been charged in both indictments: the sports-rigging operation and the illegal poker games.

He allegedly passed along insider information in regards to the two Laker games that are under investigation while also serving as one of the big names used to lure in players for the illegal poker games. Jones is a friend, former teammate and coach to LeBron James, and he had restricted access to the Lakers during the 2022-23 season. According to the indictment, before a Feb. 9, 2023, game between the Lakers and Bucks, Jones texted a co-conspirator that they should bet on the game because a player was out. James wound up sitting that game. James was not aware that Jones shared information about his playing status, according to The Athletic.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-illegal-gambling-investigation-explained/

[Jose Garcia]

2. The guy is earning over $4 million per year

My guess is that he has a gambling problem himself and owes a lot of money to the mafia and was working for them to pay it off.

[louis-t]

3. Or, Patel's FBI caught a bunch of guys playing cards in

Chauncey's basement. Distract, distract, distract....

[Deminpenn]

8. It's not just that, but also that Rozier was passing along inside information

on player status and also involved players taking themselves out of games feigning injury so that the bettors betting on individual player lines, like player A will score 20 pts, would be affected.

[louis-t]

10. Wow, pretty evil. I was making a joke but

the media is really pouncing on this. Sounds like a really big deal.

[Deminpenn]

13. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal,

but it is. Americans are betting on everything these days. It's like the mania that overtook the stock market in the 1920s.

The temptation must be enormous for players, coaches, officials to do just one little "favor" that will earn that person a big payoff.

And wait until college players are allowed to bet on pro sports, something that was made legal mere days ago. Think college players won't be calling their fellow alumni in the pros for tips or even "favors"?

[LoveSucky]

4. Please void Rozier's contract.

[Deminpenn]

7. This is just the tip of the iceberg of illegal gambling operations

infecting all of pro sports, imho.

[Ptah]

12. I'm waiting for Bet ESPN to post odds on who will snitch first.

[Deminpenn]

14. Here's a good primer on sports betting

https://triblive.com/sports/sports-betting-is-a-booming-business-the-fbis-nba-probe-is-putting-it-in-the-spotlight/