Professional basketball was stunned this week as a popular NBA Hall of Famer and head coach, a current player and a former player were arrested by federal authorities on illegal gambling charges.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Damon Jones were named in indictments unsealed Thursday in New York. They were among 31 people, including alleged mobsters, charged in the sprawling gambling scandal.
Billups, a 2004 NBA Finals MVP with the champion Detroit Pistons, was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games tied to La Cosa Nostra organized crime families. Unsuspecting gamblers were cheated out of at least $7 million, according to authorities.
Rozier was accused in a separate scheme of exploiting private information about players to win bets on NBA games.
Both men face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges. Jones, a former assistant coach and player, is accused of participating in both schemes.
About 20 other defendants appeared in court where most pleaded not guilty. Many of those charged with violent crimes or with lengthy criminal records and ties to organized crime were detained.
Associated Press coverage includes:
__ The charges against Billups, Rozier and Jones came in the opening week of the new NBA season as storylines were building around whether Luka Doncic can help LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers win another championship, if San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama will become the league’s next great superstar and if the Oklahoma City Thunder can repeat as champs.
__ Betting has become big business for the NBA. It’s allowed in some form in 38 states now. “It’s a world that’s a different world than it was a few years ago with the advent of legalized gambling,” Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said.
__ Experts say the biggest jump has been online, through smartphone apps and platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel. Through the third quarter of this year, legal sports betting generated $10 billion in revenue, up about 19% from the same period a year ago, according to the American Gaming Association.
__ An unsealed indictment in this week’s federal case shows how poker games were rigged. Shuffling machines with advanced technology were used to determine the exact order of cards after a shuffle, and who was holding what once they were dealt.
__ A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2018 struck down a federal law that barred sports betting in most states. Sports betting has since brought revenue to state government. A Pew Research Center poll found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults say the fact that sports betting is now legal in much of the country is “a bad thing” for society and sports, up from about one-third in July 2022.
__ Betting scandals have been intertwined with professional sports for more than a century. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team were indicted in 1920 on charges that they fixed the 1919 World Series. In 2008, NBA referee Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to wire fraud and transmitting betting information for taking thousands of dollars from a gambler for inside tips on games, including games he worked.
