Greater than 30 folks, together with NBA head coach Chauncey Billups and participant Terry Rozier, have been arrested as a part of federal investigations into playing and “sports activities rigging” operations linked to a number of main crime households, legislation enforcement leaders mentioned Thursday.
“We’re right here in New York to announce a historic arrest throughout a large, sweeping legal enterprise that envelops each the NBA and La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Director Kash Patel mentioned at a information convention in Brooklyn, New York.
Billups, head coach of the Portland Path Blazers, Rozier of the Miami Warmth, and former NBA participant Damon Jones have been “taken into custody right this moment,” Patel mentioned.
In a press release, the NBA mentioned that Rozier 31, and Billups 49, “are being positioned on rapid depart from their groups, and we’ll proceed to cooperate with the related authorities.”
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our recreation stays our high precedence,” the NBA mentioned.
The arrests stem from two main fraud-related instances: one involving sports activities betting, and the opposite linked to “rigged poker video games,” U.S. Legal professional for the Jap District of New York Joseph Nocella mentioned.
The latter indictment encompasses 31 defendants, together with Billups, who allegedly “participated in a nationwide scheme” to rig the video games utilizing “high-tech dishonest expertise to steal tens of millions of {dollars} from victims in underground poker video games that have been secretly fastened,” Nocella mentioned.
That expertise included poker chip tray analyzers and tampered shuffling machines that would ship details about gamers’ palms to an off-site operator, the U.S. lawyer mentioned.
The defendants additionally used particular glasses or contact lenses “that would learn pre-marked playing cards, and an x-ray desk that would learn playing cards face down on the desk,” he mentioned.
FBI Director Kash Patel (R) leads information convention to announce arrests tied to unlawful sports activities betting and poker recreation schemes, in New York Metropolis on October 23, 2025.
Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Photographs
Victims within the rigged video games have been often called “fish” who have been at occasions “lured” by the prospect to play alongside professional athletes, often called “face playing cards,” Nocella mentioned.
However “everyone else on the poker recreation, from the supplier to the gamers, together with the face playing cards, have been in on the rip-off,” he mentioned.
The video games that happened within the New York space have been backed by the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime households, he mentioned.
An x-ray poker desk.
Courtesy: U.S. Division of Justice
A DeckMate 2 shuffler.
Courtesy: U.S. Division of Justice
A pc program exhibiting data from a rigged shuffling machine.
Courtesy: U.S. Division of Justice
The opposite indictment facilities on an insider sports activities betting conspiracy that Nocella described as “one of the brazen sports activities corruption schemes since on-line sports activities betting turned extensively legalized in the US.”
That case includes six defendants, together with Rozier. Jones is charged in each instances.
Former Toronto Raptors participant Jontay Porter was beforehand charged within the sports activities playing scheme, Nocella mentioned. Porter pleaded responsible in July 2024 to wire fraud conspiracy.
Head coach Chauncey Billups of the Portland Path Blazers reacts through the first quarter of the preseason recreation towards the Golden State Warriors on the Moda Heart on October 14, 2025 in Portland, Oregon.
Alika Jenner | Getty Photographs Sport | Getty Photographs
“This alleged unlawful playing operation hustled unwitting victims out of tens of tens of millions of {dollars}, and created a monetary pipeline for La Cosa Nostra to assist fund and facilitate their organized legal exercise,” mentioned FBI New York Assistant Director in Cost Christopher Raia.
Billups, a former participant for the Detroit Pistons who spent 17 years within the NBA, was arrested in Portland, Oregon. A five-time All-Star, Billups was inducted into the Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2024.
Rozier was arrested in Orlando, Florida.
Rozier, a 10-year NBA veteran, reportedly had been eyed for months over suspicious sports activities betting exercise associated to his play.
Terry Rozier #2 of the Miami Warmth dribbles the ball through the second half in a preseason recreation towards the Memphis Grizzlies at Kaseya Heart on October 17, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Tomas Diniz Santos | Getty Photographs Sport | Getty Photographs
Billups was named NBA Finals Most Worthwhile Participant in 2004 when the Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers within the league’s finals.
Jones, 49, performed for 10 groups, together with three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, over a decade-plus NBA profession.
