4 wildest NBA gambling allegations: Cheating poker

Poker chip trays that can secretly read playing cards.

Glasses that can detect card markings.

Rigged underground video games run by the New York mafia.

NBA figures exchanging insider data as half of unlawful betting schemes.

These are some of the wild allegations filed in two legal complaints this week by federal prosecutors in one of the most sweeping and sensational betting scandals in latest skilled sports activities historical past.

At the guts of one of the instances, prosecutors charged a number of figures utilizing personal insider NBA data, such as when gamers would sit out, to help others revenue in leveraged bets online.

But the allegations go far deeper, including a connection to the Lakers, the mob and more.

Here are 4 key allegations:

1. High-roller video games with high-tech dishonest

Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, who performed with the Clippers for two seasons and later was a member of Clippers coach Ty Lue’s workers before incomes the Trail Blazers head teaching job, is charged with rigging underground poker video games that three of New York’s Mafia households backed, authorities said.

Billups and Damon Jones, a retired NBA participant, according to one of the 2 indictments revealed Thursday, had been used to appeal to rich gamers to the video games and had been referred to as “Face Cards.” But according to the federal indictment, the 2 had been half of the dishonest groups. In exchange for participating in the video games, the “Face Cards” obtained half of the winnings.

The groups, according to court filings, used rigged shuffling machines that read deck playing cards and predicted which participant on the desk would have the best poker hand and relayed that data to somebody, referred to as the operator. That individual then relayed that data to one member of the dishonest staff on the desk, identified as the “Quarterback,” or “Driver,” according to court filings.

In some instances, the dishonest groups used poker chip trays that may secretly read the playing cards on the desk. In other instances, gamers used glasses that may detect particular markings on the playing cards.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella of Brooklyn said at a press convention said the defendants used “special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards” and tables that “could read cards face down on the table … because of the X-ray technology.”

He cited (*4*)

“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others,” Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, said in a assertion Tuesday evening. “To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall-of-Fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game.”

2. Alleged mob ties

The video games in the New York space had been backed by three of New York’s organized crime households: the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese Mafia households, authorities said. According to the criticism, at least a dozen of the 31 defendants had been associates or members of those three households.

Among those named in the indictment was Joseph Lanni, recognized as a captain in the Gambino crime household. Known as “Joe Brooklyn,” Lanni was also named as a defendant in a 2023 racketeering, extortion and witness retaliation indictment, where members and associates of the Gambino household had been accused of attempting to take control of New York’s carting and demolition industries.

Last week, Lanni pleaded guilty to one rely of racketeering conspiracy, according to court data.

3. A tip about LeBron James

Federal prosecutors allege that between December 2022 and March 2024, the defendants , used inside data to defraud bettors, including which gamers could be sitting out video games and when gamers would “pull themselves out of games early for purported injuries or illnesses.”

Damon Jones, a retired NBA participant and buddy of LeBron James is accused of inside data for sports activities betting associated to the Lakers and particularly “Player 3,” a distinguished NBA participant.

Although the indictment doesn’t identify the participant — the date referenced in 2023 when the participant sat out matches when James sat out against the Milwaukee Bucks due to ankle soreness. According to the indictment, Jones, a buddy of James, profited from the non-public data.

“Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” Jones texted an unnamed co-conspirator, according to the indictment. “[Player 3] is out tonight.”

On Thursday, the Lakers declined to remark on the investigation. An individual close to LeBron James told The Times that the Lakers star didn’t know that Jones was allegedly promoting injury data to gamblers putting bets. Neither James or the Lakers have been accused of any wrongdoing.

3. A ‘shady’ injury

According to the indictment, when Terry Rozier was enjoying for the Hornets, he told others he was planning to go away the sport early with a “supposed injury,” permitting others to place wagers that raked in hundreds of {dollars}, New York Police Commissioner Jennifer Tisch said.

Rozier and other defendants allegedly offered that data to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat price or a share of betting earnings.

Another recreation involving Rozier that has been in query was performed a day earlier, on March 23, 2023, between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans. Rozier performed the first 9 minutes and 36 seconds of that recreation — and not only didn’t return that evening, citing a foot issue, but also didn’t play again that season.

Posts still online from March 23, 2023, show that some bettors had been livid with sportsbooks that night when it turned evident that Rozier was not going to return, with many turning to social media to say that one thing “shady” had gone on concerning the prop bets involving his stats for that evening.