2025 NBA illegal gambling prosecution

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2025 NBA illegal gambling prosecution became public on the 23rd of October 2025, when 34 people were arrested and indicted. The charges involved rigged sports bets and crooked poker games. Current and former National Basketball Association players were among the accused, along with a coach. Three names drew the most attention: Chauncey Billups, a Hall of Famer and head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, former player Damon Jones, and Terry Rozier, who had played for the Miami Heat. All three were arrested for alleged roles in the scheme. Prosecutors described two separate but related operations, one fed by secret information and one built on cheating at cards. How did a handful of odd bets in 2023 grow into a case that reached a head coach? And why had the league's own review of one player found nothing?

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• 2. The Investigation

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  In March 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was alerted to unusual betting activity involving Terry Rozier. The FBI worked alongside the Joint Organized Crime Task Force of the New York City Police Department's Organized Crime Control Bureau. Together they began looking into people connected to the NBA for illegal gambling that same year. The league ran its own inquiry as well. NBA officials met with Rozier several times as they examined the matter.

  The arrests came in two cities, timed around the start of the new season. Rozier was taken into custody in Orlando, Florida, where the Heat were playing their season opener against the Orlando Magic. Billups was arrested in Portland, Oregon, a day after the Trail Blazers opened their season with a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Prosecutions were made public after those arrests.

  Both men denied the allegations. The NBA placed each of them on administrative leave while it reviewed the federal indictments. The charges themselves would later grow heavier for one of them.

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• 3. Secrets Before Tip-Off

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  One of the two schemes rested on information that bettors were not supposed to have. Prosecutors identified at least seven games, played between February 2023 and March 2024, that they considered suspect. The clearest example involved Rozier and a game in February 2023. He allegedly told associates in advance that he would leave early with an injury. Those associates then placed more than US$200,000 in bets that he would underperform. Rozier left that game after nine minutes, with a reported foot injury.

  Damon Jones faced charges tied to two other games. He was accused of passing along private details about player injuries before two Los Angeles Lakers games, one in 2023 and one in 2024.

  The indictment also named an unidentified figure, listed as Co-Conspirator 8. This person was described as an Oregon resident whose career timeline matched that of Billups. Co-Conspirator 8 allegedly supplied insider details about a Trail Blazers game in March 2023.

  On the 28th of May 2026, the Justice Department filed a superseding indictment against Rozier. It accused him of taking a $100,000 bribe to change how he played. New charges included wire fraud conspiracy and bribery in sporting contests.

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• 4. The Rigged Poker Table

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  Around US$7 million is the sum prosecutors say was taken from players at a network of high-stakes poker games. The second indictment charged 31 defendants, Billups among them. Prosecutors said members and associates of the Bonanno, Genovese, and Gambino crime families ran the operation.

  The cheating was technical. According to prosecutors, the games used modified shuffling machines, special contact lenses, and a table fitted with X-ray technology. Games took place in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan, and the Hamptons. Victims were drawn in by the chance to play alongside former professional athletes.

  The victims did not know that everyone around them was in on the fraud. The other players and the dealers were involved, and even the card-shuffling and chip-counting machines were part of it. When a player refused to pay what he owed, crime family members allegedly turned to threats and intimidation.

  Billups and Jones were accused of helping the Mafia organize these games. After each one, the Mafia allegedly kept a share of the winnings and pursued those who owed money. Both men were also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and with money laundering.

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• 5. Reactions and Reckoning

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  New York representative Paul Tonko called the alleged behavior an "inevitable consequence of the unchecked explosion of the sports betting industry." Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York Field Office, went further. He said the operation defrauded innocent victims out of tens of millions of dollars. He also said it created a financial funnel that helped La Cosa Nostra pay for and spread its criminal activity.

  Inside basketball, the arrests revived an old conversation. Team staff and former players described poker and bourré card games as routine on team flights and in locker rooms. Some of those games reportedly involved large sums of money.

  Questions also landed on the league itself. In 2024, the NBA had reviewed Rozier and "not found in violation" of its rules. Analysts voiced growing unease about how well the league could look into betting matters. Some executives wondered whether the public could still trust internal oversight.

  NBA Commissioner Adam Silver conceded that federal authorities had greater investigative resources than the league. The NBA said it was treating the new federal indictments "with the utmost seriousness."

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