Take a look at how Miami point guard Terry Rozier, Portland head coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA player & assistant Damon Jones were indicted as part of a major investigation that was announced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday morning.
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Video Transcript
What’s going on with the FBI arresting Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier?
Well, there are two separate cases.
Billups was arrested in an FBI investigation called Operation Royal Flush for his alleged involvement in illegal poker games that were rigged by the mafia using special glasses and X-ray poker tables to see other players’ cards.
Yes, really.
Billups was involved as one of the faces of the operation.
Major organized crime families such as the Gambinos use the legitimacy of playing poker in a game with a famous face like Billups to lure unsuspecting gamblers into these fixed poker games where they ultimately lost over $7 million.
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Then there was a totally separate FBI investigation called Operation Nothing But Bet that arrested Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones for a scheme to place bets on NBA games based on non-public information.
In short, betting on rigged games.
It was mostly stuff like betting on a player’s unders when that player is secretly planning to pull themselves out of a game early due to injury or illness.
Terry Rozier is alleged to have facilitated bets on his own under stat lines when he knew he was gonna pull himself early, while Damon Jones is alleged to have passed on non-public injury information about LeBron James while he was working with the Lakers star as a personal shooting coach during the 2023 season.
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Jones was not employed by the Lakers and LeBron is also not accused of any wrongdoing.
However, this is the same FBI gambling investigation that charged Jonte Porter last year for also betting on his own rigged under stat lines.
Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA and will be charged this December after pleading guilty.
Currently, the NBA has placed both Billups and Rozier on immediate leave from their teams, and the Trail Blazers have named Tiago Splitter as their interim head coach.