FBI and Prosecutors Unveil Massive NBA Betting and Mafia Poker Ring Bust

Nationwide Takedown of Criminal Enterprises

• FBI Director Kash Patel announced a historic, coordinated takedown across 11 states, arresting over 30 individuals involved in a sprawling criminal enterprise.
• The operation targeted both illegal gambling and sports rigging within the NBA, as well as rigged poker games backed by La Cosa Nostra crime families.
• Charges include wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling, with total fraud and theft estimated in the tens of millions of dollars over multiple years.

NBA Sports Betting Scheme

• 🏀 Six defendants, including former NBA player Damon Jones and current NBA player Terry Rozier, are charged in a sports betting conspiracy exploiting non-public NBA information.
• 💡 This insider information involved knowing when players would sit out or leave games early due to purported injuries or illnesses.
• 💰 Defendants allegedly used this information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, primarily on individual player performance prop bets, resulting in millions in intended losses.
• 🤝 The scheme involved misusing information from long-standing friendships with NBA players and coaches, and in one instance, threatening a player due to gambling debts.

Rigged Poker Games and Organized Crime

• 🃏 A separate indictment involves 31 defendants in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games using high-tech cheating technology.
• Mafia involvement is significant, with members and associates from the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families backing and organizing these rigged games in New York.
• 💸 Victims, often lured by the chance to play with former professional athletes, were fleeced out of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per game through sophisticated cheating methods.
• ⚠️ The scheme included acts of violence, such as gunpoint robbery to obtain cheating equipment and extortion to ensure debt repayment.

Key Figures and Cooperation

• 🎤 NBA figures implicated include Terry Rozier (current player), Chauncey Billups (head coach), and former player Damon Jones.
• 🤝 Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, HSI, NYPD, and the Waterfront Commission, collaborated on the investigation and takedown.
• ⚖️ The NBA has stated it is reviewing the allegations and has cooperated with the investigation.
• 🔍 The investigations are ongoing, with authorities encouraging anyone with further information to come forward.