Former NBA Star Gilbert Arenas Arrested for Illegal Poker Game

Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was arrested on suspicion of running an illegal high-stakes poker game out of his Los Angeles-area home on Wednesday.

The former three-time All-Star for the Washington Wizards was one of six men arrested in a raid of the Encino, CA mansion. Arenas and the others accused of running the game allegedly collected a house fee from participants, which is what would make the game illegal under California law.

Arenas denied involvement when arrested. However, a key piece of evidence is a picture from 2021 that he had allegedly texted to one of the other men arrested. The picture shows the poker table at which the game allegedly took place. It bears his name and image, reading “Arenas Poker Club” alongside the silhouette of a basketball player with his name and number 0 on the jersey.

It is unclear just how high the stakes were for Arenas’s alleged game. While California does not officially cap the stakes at legal card rooms, it’s rare to see public cash games with a table buy-in higher than $5,000. Arenas earned more than $163 million during his NBA career thanks to lucrative contract deals.

Arenas has also been known to play in legal poker games, such as the 2022 WPT cash game he is shown at in the image above.

Other accused include suspected Israeli gangster

Of the five other men arrested with Arenas, one was Yevgeni Gershman, who is suspected of being a part of an Israeli organized crime syndicate.

Gilbert Arenas getting caught up with the Israeli mob is a sentence that doesn’t even make sense

— Not Bald (@fadecorner) July 30, 2025

Now 43 years old, Arenas spent 11 seasons in the NBA, including several successful years for the Wizards. However, he has a history of run-ins with the law, and it is not the first time poker has been involved.

His career was derailed in 2009 following an incident where he brought an unloaded gun into the locker room and threatened teammate Javaris Crittenton. That incident apparently had its roots in poker as well. The dispute between the two players reportedly spilled over from a high-stakes card game.

As a result of the incident, Arenas was suspended for the remainder of the 2009-10 NBA season. His reputation with fans never fully recovered.

Athletes’ attraction to gambling

Arenas’ incident is one in a long string of gambling scandals involving professional athletes. It has always been an issue, but players are under more scrutiny than ever before since the legalization of sports betting in the US.

In the same week as Arenas’ arrest, another NBA player, Marcus Morris, was arrested and charged with writing $265,000 in bad checks at Las Vegas casinos. MLB pitcher Emmanuel Clase is also temporarily suspended amid a gambling investigation.

According to a British Study led by Matthew Adam Turk and published in Nature, athletes are more prone to gambling problems than the average person. Many gambling problems begin with an emotional need to escape, and professional athletes are often under intense pressure. Another study cited in the paper observes that athletes reporting sport-related anxiety and depression are particularly likely to gamble.

Aside from Arenas, one well-known example is NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, who admitted to having lost as much as $25 million from gambling. NBA great Michael Jordan is likewise known for the infamous stories of his high propensity for gambling.

Poker satisfies thirst for competition

While many instances of illegal gambling by athletes naturally relate to sports betting, poker seems to be a recurring theme as well.

Although poker isn’t specifically mentioned in Turk’s paper, the competitive nature of poker may provide a natural draw for athletes. Poker, like sports, is a highly competitive zero-sum activity that produces clear winners and losers. In fact, many over the game’s proponents say it should properly be considered a sport rather than gambling. The government of Thailand officially adopted that view of the game this week.

Not all stories involving athletes at the poker table are negative, of course. Other sightings include:

In May, former NFL star Adrian Peterson got into a fight at a Houston poker club he frequents and later agreed to a celebrity boxing match to settle the matter.
MLB pitching star Max Scherzer shared a story of high-stakes poker games with his teammates on the 2015 Washington Nationals.
Former German tennis star and six-time slam winner Boris Becker was an ambassador for PokerStars from 2007-2013.
Multiple soccer players have also served as PokerStars ambassadors, most notably Neymar Jr.
NFL Hall of Famer Richard Seymour has almost $800,000 in poker tournament earnings, according to Card Player, and has been a fixture at the WSOP for years.