Deputy Editor
According to the FBI, a high-tech poker cheating operation saw several NBA legends, including Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, colluding with four Mafia crime families to steal $7 million from unsuspecting victims.
At a Thursday press conference, authorities announced a pair of indictments that led to 34 arrests, including Billups. The other NBA-affiliated people charged were Damon Jones (former player, former assistant coach), and Terry Rozier (current player). Rozier’s arrest first drew attention to the story ahead of this morning’s press conference.
The FBI and the NYPD cooperated on the investigation, which has spanned years. According to speakers at the press conference, Billups and Jones knowingly participated in “rigged poker games” using “wireless cheating technology.”
Rozier, for his part, helped fix the outcomes of prop bets related to his performance.
All three men, along with the other conspirators, will appear in federal courts in the districts in which they were arrested.
FBI Director Kash Patel called the arrests “historic” and part of a “wide, sweeping criminal enterprise” that included mafia involvement. He called the fraud “mind-boggling” and said it encompassed tens of millions of dollars.
Joseph Nocella Jr., U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, delivered a strongly worded message to the alleged perpetrators.
Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that.
Keep Reading
Mobsters Rigged Poker Games, Used NBAers as Bait
Nocella detailed the poker cheating ring’s modus operandi, which included the use of several highly-sophisticated cheating devices. These ranged from rigged shufflers, to special cameras hidden in chip trays, and even an “X-ray table.”
He said the FBI’s awareness of the operation dated to “as early as 2019.” It took place in multiple locations, with Nocella naming Manhattan, the Hamptons, Miami, and Las Vegas.
NBA celebrities such as Billups and Jones were termed “face cards” by the conspirators. Their alleged role was as lures for the targets of the scam. Victims would jump at the chance to play high-stakes games against seemingly rich whales or just to sit at a table with a celebrity.
Editor’s note: While this article was being written and published, poker pro Matt Berkey’s Only Friends podcast dredged up a clip from a 2023 episode of the show. In the clip, Berkey details a private game “built around Chauncey Billups.” It played out in Los Angeles and Las Vegas circa 2018 or 2019. He said it was “confirmed to be cheated” but the players had no recourse.
Allegedly, Billups and Jones were in on the operation, along with the dealer and everyone else at the table except the victims. The FBI said victims lost tens or even hundreds of thousands per game. Total windfall off the rigged games added up to $7 million. The greatest loss for a single victim was said to be $1.8 million.
Shane Hennen, an accused poker cheat covered once before on PokerScout, was also named in the indictment.
The Bonanno, Genovese, Gambino, and Lucchese crime families allegedly helped organize the games and collect debts from the victims. They also took a slice of the winnings. They employed “threats, intimidation, and violence” if victims refused to pay and even acquired one of the rigged shuffling machines via gunpoint robbery, the FBI said.
A Wide Range of Cheating Devices
The primary method of cheating described in the indictment involved the use of a secretly altered shuffle machine. The machine would allegedly relay info about which player had the best hand to an off-site operator. That person would then send the info via cell phone to a specific player in the game, termed the “quarterback” by the alleged conspirators. The QB then would then use a signaling system to communicate the situation to the others at the table.
A recent WIRED investigation tested and successfully demonstrated an uncannily similar cheating process. In an interview included in the video, poker player, coach, and cardroom owner Doug Polk said any game outside of a casino featuring the Deckmate 2 shuffler should be considered a red flag.
“You should run for the hills,” Polk said, when asked what he would do if he encountered such games.
The Deckmate 2 has been singled out for attention by security researchers because it includes a camera. Although the purpose of the camera is to ensure the intergrity of the deck, it also presents a security risk if hacked.
The FBI investigation revealed other cheating schemes at play as well. Nocella said the perpetrators used poker chip trays with hidden cameras, special contact lenses to read pre-marked cards, and an “X-ray table” that read face-down cards. He may have been referencing the RFID technology commonly in use for live-streamed poker games, which does not involve literal X-rays.
NYC Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch added “bar-coded decks” and “hidden cameras in tables and light fixtures” as further cheating mechanisms.
Some aspects of the case matched another recent poker cheating scandal involving the ensnarement of international students in the U.K. There, cheaters allegedly used infrared cameras to read the cards from a bird’s eye view.
Rozier Connected to Highly Publicized Insider NBA Betting Ring
While Billups and Jones were involved in the poker half of the indictment, Rozier helped fix the outcomes of prop bets. He was part of the same insider betting ring that included Jontay Porter, banned for life from the NBA after a highly publicized bust last year.
According to Nocella, suspicious games took place from December 2022 through March 2024. Players would frequently pull themselves out of games early, citing injury or illness.
The betting ring, meanwhile, got down “hundreds of thousands in fraudulent bets,” spread out among a network of individuals in hopes of avoiding triggering detection systems.
“Most of these bets succeeded,” said Nocella, who called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes.”
The ring also exploited confidential insider information provided by “corrupt individuals.”
Tisch detailed one of the fraudulent games, one played by Rozier as a member of the Charlotte Hornets on March 23, 2023. Rozier withdrew from the game after just 9 minutes and 34 seconds, which ensured that all his game stats were below the betting line. Until that point, he was having one of his most productive campaigns of the season, averaging 21 points per game.
Rozier was subsequently inactive for the remainder of that season, though he played in the following two seasons before the ongoing gambling investigations derailed his career. The Miami Heat roster still lists him as a member, though he hasn’t appeared in a game this season.
