The NBA placed Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier on immediate leave after federal gambling charges became public, as prosecutors pursued two related but distinct cases. Billups was removed from the Trail Blazers bench about a day after Portland’s season opener, and Tiago Splitter took over as interim coach.
The league said it was reviewing the indictments and cooperating with federal authorities. As covered in July, federal prosecutors had already asked a Brooklyn judge to schedule plea hearings for 12 defendants in the poker case.
One strand, known as Operation Royal Flush, targeted an alleged poker-rigging network that investigators said operated in private games in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Miami and Las Vegas. Reports gave the broader action slightly different counts, with one describing 31 defendants and another describing 34, but both pointed to a large federal sweep.
Officials said the games were built around deception. Investigators described manipulated shuffling machines, X-ray tables, hidden cameras built into tables and light fixtures, electronic chip trays, and cards marked or barcoded so they could be read only by people wearing special contact lenses or glasses.
Prosecutors alleged that information about the best hand was routed from an off-site operator to a table-side “Quarterback” or “Driver,” who then signaled other members with a colored chip or a touch to the chin, wrist or arm. They said the operation generated more than $7 million over six years and cost victims at least that much. When debts went unpaid, prosecutors alleged, Mafia-linked participants turned to threats and violence.
The broader action also reached alleged members or associates of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese families. FBI Director Kash Patel said the wrongdoing was a criminal enterprise that enveloped both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra.
CNN reported that U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones were alleged to have taken part in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games. Nocella also said that at the table, everyone from the dealer to the players was in on the scam.
Billups, a Hall of Famer, five-time All-Star and 2004 NBA champion, was described as a “Face Card” whose celebrity status helped lure wealthy players to the games, and as part of the “Cheating Team” that used rigged equipment. Investigators said text messages from a Las Vegas game in April 2019 suggested orchestrators believed he was winning too many improbable hands and needed to lose on purpose.
Rozier was arrested in Orlando and later appeared in federal court. Prosecutors said he told a co-conspirator he would leave a March 23, 2023 game early because of a supposed injury, and that bets were placed on Rozier-related non-public information.
A separate indictment accused Rozier, a co-conspirator and four others of using confidential NBA information to defraud betting companies. NBC said federal agents dubbed that insider-betting case Operation Nothing But Bet, and that the arrests spanned more than 30 people across 11 states.
