A TOP player and a coach were arrested in the United Sta­tes on Thursday for alleged inv­olvement in illegal gambling schemes that rocked the National Basketball Association (NBA), the country’s marquee basketball tournament.

Chauncey Billups, the head coach of Portland Trail Blazers, and Terry Rozier, a Miami Heat guard, were arrested in connection with rigged illegal poker games tied to Mafia crime families, according to FBI Director Kash Patel, acc­ording to BBC .

A former NBA player and assistant coach, Damon Jones, was also among six people arrested in a sports betting case, Patel said at the press conference in New York. “The fraud is mind boggling,” Patel said. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”

Billups and Rozier were placed on “immediate lea­ve” following their arrests, an NBA spokesperson said.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the league said in a statement.

Celebrities, professional sports stars and wealthy gamblers sat at a table hoping to win big.

But they didn’t know it was nearly impossible. They were “fishes” allegedly being targeted by the mafia in an elaborate pok­er gambling scheme that included X-ray card tables, secret cameras, ana­­lysers in chip trays and sunglasses and contact lenses that could read their hand.

Ocean’s Eleven plot recalled

In what sounds like an Ocean’s Eleven film plot, prosecutors say these “un­witting” victims were cheated out of $7 million in poker games — with one person losing at least $1.8m.

The scheme, which US prosecutors described as “reminiscent of a Holl­y­wood movie”, was dismantled in a sprawling federal investigation that led to more than 30 arrests, inc­luding members of La Cosa Nostra crime families, Portland Trail Blazers basketball coach Chauncey Bill­ups and former NBA player Damon Jones.

Kash Patel, the director of FBI, called it a “mind-boggling” fraud scheme that cheated victims in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and other US cities.

Arrests in the scheme were announced on Thur­sday along with those in an alleged basketball betting plot, in which professional NBA players stand accused of faking injuries to influence betting odds.

The underground poker scheme started as early as 2019, prosecutors say, and was allegedly operated by the mafia — specifically by members of notorious cri­me families like Bon­nano, Gambino, Lucchese and Genovese. A cut of the profits, prosecutors say, helped fund their criminal enterprise.

Former professional athletes, described by prosecutors as “face cards”, were enlisted to help in the scheme and entice victims into playing. Lured in by the opportunity to play with a high-profile celebrity — such as Billups or Jones — a wealthy, unwitting victim would be recruited for illegal, underground poker games where tens of thousands of dollars were on the line, prosecutors alleged.

Unbeknownst to the lured-in players — referred to in the scheme as a ‘fish’ — everyone surrounding them was in on the elaborate scam — from the players to the dealers, even the technology used to shuffle the deck and count the chips, according to a len­gthy federal indictment.

Sophisticated techology

Sophisticated wireless technology was also used to deceive the players during the games, most commonly in Texas Hold ‘Em.

An X-ray poker machine was employed to read facedown cards and a rigged card-shuffling machine was also used in the plot, prosecutors say

The technology was everywhere — an X-ray table that read any face-down card, analysers inside chip trays, a rigged shuffling machine that read cards and predicted who would have the best hand, and pre-marked cards that allowed those wearing special sunglasses and contact lenses to read what was in everyone’s hands.

Secretive cameras — built into tables and light fixtures — also helped convey information to those helping in the plot, authorities say.

Then there was also a sophisticated method of communicating and rigging the game, prosecutors allege.

Information from the game would be sent to an off-site conspirator — called an “operator” by prosecutors — who then would send information to another player sitting at the table who was in on the scheme — who prosecutors call a “quarterback” or “driver”.

That person would then secretly signal to others, prosecutors allege, effectively stealing money and making it impossible for victims to win.

Texts from the US justice department’s evidence suggest the “quarterback” would either touch the $1,000 poker chip, tap his chin, wrist or arm to signal which conspirator had the best hand.

If the victim had the best hand, the “quarterback” would touch his black chips.

The texts also appear to show that at times conspirators agreed to lose some hands in order to keep victims at the gambling table for longer.

Another series of texts suggests participants in the scheme avoided suspicion of cheating by swapping in players and losing money to co-conspirators.

Authorities estimate that each game would leave a victim out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Prosecutors say the defendants allegedly laundered the funds from the scheme through cryptocurrency, cash exchanges and shell companies.

A cut of the profits went to those who helped in the plot, prosecutors say, and some allegedly went to fund the mafia’s criminal enterprise.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2025