The feds have pulled back the curtain on a shadowy sports betting operation that makes Hollywood mob flicks look like bedtime stories.
According to the Daily Mail, a federal indictment has implicated NBA veteran Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups in a high-tech gambling and rigged poker scheme allegedly backed by four major Mafia crime families.
Prosecutors allege the group defrauded victims out of more than $7 million with elaborate cheating devices—X-ray tables, deck-analyzing shuffle machines, and even contact lenses that could read cards—run from afar via cellphone by accomplices planted at the table.
NBA Names Tied To Criminal Shenanigans
According to court filings, Rozier, currently with the Miami Heat, was allegedly using insider NBA information for betting abuse, while Billups, new to the Basketball Hall of Fame, is being accused of helping to rig poker games designed to lure in deep-pocketed targets.
The two weren’t alone. More than 30 people—affiliated with both organized crime and the sports world—have been charged as part of two overlapping investigations into the games and the widespread sports betting activity tied to them. Authorities pin the backbone of the operation on infamous names from America's underworld: The Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, and Lucchese families, each with members allegedly working under a rare cooperative agreement.
Mafia Tech Meets NBA Glitz
Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the former Gambino family underboss and once the most feared turncoat in mob history, weighed in on the case in rare commentary. His take? The use of technology in modern rigging schemes left him impressed—if not amused.
“We didn’t even have the phones in my time,” he said. “That fascinated me. I mean, it’s fascinating to see glasses, contact lenses, whatever, and they could see the card that's passed out. So how could you ever beat them?” Billups was recently photographed leaving federal court in Portland after his arrest, just a year after his Hall of Fame induction. As if being honored for integrity in sport wasn’t ironic enough, he now finds himself surrounded by people who measure loyalty in code, not character.
Ripe Targets and Rotten Deals
Rozier has already made over $133 million in his playing career—not exactly a man in need. He recently inked another massive $26.6 million deal, raising the question: What was he even doing within arm’s reach of this mess?
Gravano didn’t hold back. “You’re already in the Hall of Fame, you've made $100 million,” he said of Billups. “If that’s not greed, I don’t know what is.” Hard to argue the point. The scheme reportedly thrived between 2019 and 2025, with some victims seeing life-altering losses—one poor soul parted with $1.8 million after visiting one of the rigged operations.
Business As Usual for Organized Crime
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch minced no words when summarizing the operation: “When people refused to pay because they were cheated, these defendants did what organized crime has always done: they used threats, intimidation, and violence.”
That threat wasn’t just theoretical. Gravano explained, “It’s the guys who lost and didn’t have enough. And now they don’t want to pay back because they feel like they got cheated,” he said. “So muscle power comes in. They go after them… They may even hit them.” The defendants reportedly enforced debts the old-school way—with fists and fear—not exactly the enlightened behavior so often idealized by today's cultural gatekeepers.
Family Ties and Criminal Loyalties
The indictment also reaches into history. Angelo Ruggiero Jr., son of the infamous “Quack Quack” Ruggiero Sr., was named, as was Lee Fama, a convicted Gambino associate with a long rap sheet touching both gambling and drugs. Nine of the defendants hail from the Bonanno family alone, including Ernest “Ernie” Aiello, allegedly one of the brains behind the poker rigging operation. Gravano, bemused but candid, remarked that cooperation among all four families was “unusual,” since traditionally they stayed in their own respective lanes. “The mafia changed,” he added simply.
A House Of Cards Ready To Fall
What seems clear is that this scheme didn’t just blend mob muscle with NBA branding—it integrated them, leaning on high-profile names to bait the trap, and decades-old enforcement methods to close it. The games were held across the country and often featured glamorous extras—models, massages, food, and security.
He hinted this may be only “the beginning,” noting that the current charges are “basically minor,” implying more severe indictments could still be on the horizon. For now, the cards are still being dealt, one federal charge at a time.
