Chauncey Billups was relatively relaxed considering that his team, the Portland Trail Blazers, had just lost their opening game of the new NBA season. He doesn’t feel any pressure, the 49-year-old coach said at a press conference on Wednesday evening. “This pressure thing is not for me. I’m doing my best and I let the chips fall where they may“You know that about me by now,” Billups told the reporters present. So he lets things go as they go.
In his 17-year NBA playing career, Billups has experienced a lot: as the leader of the Detroit Pistons, he became champion in 2004, and he is a member of the Hall of Fame for his playing achievements.
And then this: Almost twelve hours after the press conference in question, in the early hours of Thursday morning, Billups was arrested by the FBI at his home in Portland. The allegations: illegal poker rounds, betting fraud and connections to the mafia. In addition to Billups, a total of 34 people were arrested, including a current NBA player – Terry Rozier of the Miami Heat – and a former player, Damon Jones.
The fact that Chauncey Billups talked about poker chips before his arrest seems bitterly ironic in retrospect.
And even if the investigation is still ongoing and no one has been convicted yet: The gambling scandal with which the best basketball league in the world is now starting its season is partly homemade. It’s been there for years NBA with betting companies under the covers. It’s hardly surprising that at some point a bill for the hotel room arrives.
Two investigations, suspicious overlaps
Specifically, there are two indictments from the public prosecutor’s office in New York:
The betting scandal: The case, which the US authorities call “Nothing but bet,” involves illegal sports betting. The players, ex-players and their colleagues are accused in the indictment (PDF) of using insider information to bet on certain matches. The focus is particularly on seven NBA games between March 2023 and March 2024.
The still active player Terry Rozier is accused of having feigned an injury in order to leave the field early during the game of his then team, the Charlotte Hornets, against the New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023. According to the investigation, large amounts of money had previously been bet on Rozier not reaching a certain number of points in this game.
Ex-professional Damon Jones is also named in the indictment. At the time of the investigation, he was active in the Los Angeles Lakers environment and is said to have sold information about injuries to individual players that was not yet public. Chauncey Billups, the coach arrested Thursday, is not named in this indictment. However, the “co-conspirator” is named: an ex-NBA player who lives in Oregon, was active from 1997 to 2014 and has been an active NBA coach since 2021 – it is a CV that applies exactly to Billups.
There Poker Scandal: This case, which the FBI calls Operation “Royel Flush,” is much more complex. The defendants – Chauncey Billups is named here alongside Damon Jones – are accused in the indictment (PDF) of having organized illegal poker rounds and of having manipulated the games using sophisticated technology. The ex-professionals Billups and Jones are said to have lured wealthy poker players to the games with their celebrity. According to the indictment, everyone involved knew about the fraud. Numerous members of New York mafia families are also accused of being part of the network.
According to US authorities, the games were manipulated using marked cards, special glasses and contact lenses, and processed mixing machines.
On Saturday night, the President of the NBA, Commissioner Adam Silver, commented on the cases in an interview. Silver said he was deeply disturbed when he heard about the arrests: “Nothing is more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition.”
The league has suspended both Billups and Rozier, the two active participants in the scandal, effective immediately. So far nothing is known about possible motives. Billups and Rozier have earned over $100 million and $160 million, respectively, in their careers. You are probably financially secure.
The betting scandal is particularly sensitive for the NBA. As early as 2023, betting companies informed the basketball league that there had been suspicious betting behavior in the games that were now being discussed. The league launched its own investigation. “Terry cooperated at the time, he gave the league access to his phone and allowed himself to be interviewed,” Adam Silver said yesterday. The NBA ultimately decided that there was not enough evidence to continue the proceedings. However, the state investigative authorities have significantly more resources to obtain information. Silver emphasized that the NBA is cooperating with the authorities.
