Opinion: NBA Scandal Shows Poker Players Have Their Own ‘Whisper Network’

Last week’s indictments tying several NBA figures to a Mafia gambling conspiracy came as a shock to most of the world, but not to U.S. poker players who frequent the underground scene. In the hours that followed the breaking news, it became apparent that the fraud taking place in those private New York, Las Vegas, California, and Florida games was well-known or, at least, a frequently-repeated rumor. If anything, the surprise for that group may have been that the authorities actually did anything about it.

There were two portions to the indictment: one relating to match fixing in the NBA and one to rigged poker games. The general public had some inkling that match-fixing charges might be coming for Terry Rozier, as he’d been under investigation since leaving a game early in 2023 after sportsbooks had flagged suspicious bets on his personal “Under” props. However, the poker portion seemed out of the blue to anyone not tapped into underground poker’s defensive grapevine.

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was among those arrested on the poker charges, as was former player Damon Jones. Allegedly, these NBA figures were essentially bait to draw victims into the games. The other alleged conspirators, who include members of four of the five major Cosa Nostra crime families, reportedly referred to them as “face cards.”

Cheating scandals are a periodic occurrence in the poker world, yet seeking justice through the judicial system is usually a lost cause. If the cheating takes place at a commercial establishment, the perpetrator might, at best, get banned and have their winnings seized. In private games, there’s usually no recourse other than to spread the word. That dynamic is frequently seen in communities that lack adequate protection from the justice system.

An Open Secret in the Community

Almost as soon as news of the scandal broke, those in the poker community with good memories were rushing to YouTube to dig up a 2023 episode of Matt Berkey’s Only Friends podcast. In that episode, Berkey warned listeners about underground games involving Billups and expressed the view that the games were rigged.

A few days later, the mainstream media found out about the video. Berkey has since appeared on ESPN to explain his take on the situation:

When you, as a professional, who don’t really offer too much to a high-profile game like this that’s being run around celebrities, get the invite, your radar should go off. […] I had gotten multiple invites as well as friends who don’t really have access to these sort of these private games and it just seemed suspicious to me.

Berkey wasn’t the only one warning about the games, either. A January 2024 thread on the Two Plus Two poker forums called out suspected cheating at a game in the Hamptons, the east end of Long Island, New York. This past weekend, the thread was removed from the site by moderators, but it mentioned one of the indicted suspects, Ammar Awawdeh, as the game organizer. It also mentioned Saul Becher as another organizer to be cautious of, who was likewise among those who were arrested last week.

There was even an investigation by WIRED released less than two weeks before the indictments demonstrated a rigged card shuffler very similar to one of the ruses allegedly employed by the conspirators. Although that timing may be coincidental, Doug Polk was interviewed for the video and said he had “heard so many stories” of players being cheated using rigged shufflers outside of a casino context. He also offered some timely advice:

If you’re showing up at a private game and there’s a shuffler, I’d say you should run for the hills.

‘Whisper Networks’ and #MeToo

Looking at the combination of a scandalized general public and a community of potential victims that had been sharing cautionary tales for years, I can’t help but be reminded of the fall of Harvey Weinstein and the wave of sexual assault allegations that followed against other powerful men in the film and music industries.

The #MeToo movement that emerged out of that brought the idea of a “whisper network” to the public’s attention. That is, an ad hoc solution based on gossip and lists, organically developed by women in these industries to try to keep themselves safe from predatory men whose positions had, to that point, kept them above any consequences.

I don’t want to equate cheating at poker with sexual assault. They’re very different crimes with very different consequences for the victims. That’s why I used the phrase “defensive grapevine” in the introduction, as there are surely some who feel that “whisper network” belongs specifically to women and #MeToo.

However, the nature of the threat notwithstanding, a whisper network or defensive grapevine is a natural and common response anywhere a community lacks easy access to justice through traditional channels.

Granted, poker players are predominantly white men, a group that’s usually well-protected by the law in other contexts. Yet, regardless of demographics, the law often fails those who are victimized in the course of participating in something it considers a vice, like sex and gambling. Drug users similarly rely on informal gossip networks to try to avoid contaminated supply and dangerous dealers.

The Lesson of Postlegate: Don’t Bother

The NBA scandal is probably the biggest poker cheating scandal of all time if we’re using the volume of mainstream press as our standard.

However, there have been past allegations that generated more intense and longer-lasting buzz within the poker world. The instance that springs most readily to mind is when Veronica Brill blew the whistle on Mike Postle in 2019, saying his play on the Stones Gambling Hall live stream defied credibility and suggesting he was cheating with the help of someone in the broadcast booth.

The difference in the poker community’s reaction can be explained by the fact that the alleged cheating underlying last week’s arrests is old news for many players. There is also no one making a public stand to claim the games were legitimate, as Postle and his supporters did in 2019.

The aftermath of Postlegate is instructive when it comes to understanding why nothing was done about these underground games until now, if they’ve been running and known to be crooked for years.

Postle’s victims sued him to try to reclaim their money, but had the case thrown out of court. Judge William B. Shubb refused to consider the question of whether cheating had occurred, citing California’s “strong public policy against judicial resolution of civil claims arising out of gambling disputes.”

Some defendants eventually received a small settlement from the venue and the tournament director, but no acknowledgment of having been cheated. Postle’s attempts to sue for defamation and clear his name likewise hit a brick wall in a system that simply doesn’t want to touch the topic at all.

The Justice System Reflects Societal Biases

The main commonality between the treatment of crimes related to sex, drugs, and gambling is that there is a tendency to blame victims. Those who make the laws and those who enforce them are humans and prone to the same biases as the rest of society.

There is a strong tendency to impose moral judgment on people who indulge in these activities. That holds even when the person is a victim, even when the supposed vice is legal, and even when the person imposing judgment occasionally indulges in it themselves.

The result is a justice system more inclined to punish people for participating in these “vices” than it is in protecting them from harm when they do.

In all likelihood, nothing would have come of the cheating allegedly taking place in these underground games if not for two factors: the chance to take down members of several well-known mafia families, and the ongoing media furor around sports corruption. That combination made the case interesting to the FBI. Justice for the victims is just an incidental benefit.

When the dust settles in this case, cheating at poker will still be a common occurrence. The prosecution of the cheaters in this case will be the exception, not the rule, going forward. Under those circumstances, what defense does anyone have, except for a robust rumor mill?