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

[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/