In a development that's sending shockwaves through the basketball world, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday as part of a sweeping federal probe into mafia-linked illegal gambling and sports rigging. The investigation, which authorities have dubbed "Operation Nothing But Bet," has ensnared over 30 defendants, including current and former NBA players and coaches, as well as members of four notorious American crime families.
According to FBI Director Kash Patel, the probe uncovered two major criminal enterprises: one centered on illegal betting on NBA games using insider information, and another revolving around underground high-stakes poker games that were rigged with sophisticated cheating technology. "We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation," Patel announced at a packed press conference in New York City. "This is the insider trading saga for the NBA. That’s what this is."
Authorities allege that Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones acted as "face cards"—celebrity players whose presence lent legitimacy to the illicit poker games, which were secretly stacked against unsuspecting high-rollers. These games, which began in 2019, took place in luxury locales from the Hamptons and Manhattan to Las Vegas and Miami. The technological arsenal used to cheat included custom shuffling machines capable of reading card order, X-ray tables, special contact lenses, and even hidden cameras embedded in light fixtures and poker chip trays.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. detailed the mechanics of the scam: "What the victims—the fish—didn’t know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scam. Once the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game." The operation, backed by the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese crime families, generated profits exceeding $7 million, with some individual victims losing upwards of $1.8 million. When gamblers refused to pay, the mob resorted to threats and violence, authorities said.
Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, called the bust a "massive, nationwide takedown" and emphasized the unprecedented collaboration among four of New York’s five mafia families. "Bringing four of the five families together in a single indictment is extraordinarily rare. It reflects how deep and how far this investigation reached, and the skill and the persistence it took to get here," said New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Meanwhile, the parallel sports betting scheme has rocked the NBA’s integrity. Rozier and Jones are accused of passing non-public information—mainly about player injuries and illnesses—to a network of bettors who then placed hundreds of thousands of dollars in wagers at online sportsbooks and casinos. The indictment lists seven NBA games between February 2023 and March 2024 as being compromised by this insider information. These included high-profile matchups such as the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Milwaukee Bucks and the Charlotte Hornets vs. New Orleans Pelicans.
One particularly brazen example cited by authorities involved Rozier allegedly tipping off a co-defendant that he intended to leave the March 23, 2023, Hornets-Pelicans game early with a supposed injury. Rozier exited after just nine minutes, and more than $200,000 in bets were placed on his statistical "unders." According to Tisch, "As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity." The proceeds from these bets were reportedly delivered to Rozier’s home, where the group counted their winnings.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, pushed back against the charges, saying, "They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight." The NBA itself confirmed that Rozier had been cleared in a previous league investigation, but stated it has been cooperating fully with federal authorities since learning of the ongoing probe.
Jones, who played on the Cleveland Cavaliers' 2016 championship squad and later served as an assistant coach, is accused of leveraging his Lakers connections to obtain and sell confidential medical information. In one instance, on February 9, 2023, he allegedly texted a co-conspirator, “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [Player 3] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat.” The Lakers lost that game, and the inside tip reportedly netted significant winnings for the betting ring.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, speaking earlier this week, acknowledged the growing concerns about prop bet manipulation. "We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score," Silver said. He emphasized the league’s commitment to tightening controls and working with betting companies to prevent future abuses.
The investigation, which spanned two years and multiple states, has resulted in charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, illegal gambling, and more. Among the 34 defendants are 13 alleged Mafia members and associates. The federal indictments also allege that proceeds were laundered through shell companies and cryptocurrency transactions, highlighting the modern methods used to conceal the scope of the operation.
Billups and Rozier were both arrested Thursday morning in their respective cities—Billups in Portland, where the Trail Blazers had just opened their season with a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Rozier in Orlando, where the Heat were in town for a game he missed due to a hamstring injury. Both men are expected to appear in federal court later in the day and will be arraigned in Brooklyn at a future date.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a long-time New York Knicks fan, summed up the mood among basketball enthusiasts: "It’s a stunning development. The indictment seems very wide-ranging. Of course, every single one of the individuals charged are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But it was a development that I think shocks the conscience of a lot of folks, particularly those who follow the NBA closely."
With the NBA season just underway, the league faces a crisis of confidence as it grapples with the fallout from one of the most explosive betting scandals in its history. The coming weeks will determine the fate of Billups, Rozier, and the other accused, as the league and law enforcement seek to restore integrity to the game.
