Everywhere you turn, gambling is promoted, and that is especially true of the NBA. They constantly advertise it. It’s legal now, so, as one could easily predict, the criminals have moved in. A sports betting poker scheme was rigged, costing victims $7 million. The schemes involved violence and extortion. Profits were laundered through shell companies and cryptocurrency transfers.
Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced over 30 people were indicted in two separate illegal gambling-related cases.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones were among those arrested and allegedly involved in one of the schemes.
The Lucchese, Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese mafia families were allegedly involved in backing rigged poker games to scam victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, officials announced.
Three of the more than 30 defendants targeted in today’s indictments were allegedly involved in both the sports betting scheme and the fraudulent gambling scheme, said Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.
In one of the alleged schemes, poker games were rigged using technology such as chip tray analyzers and an X-ray table that could read cards face down on the table, prosecutors said.
Only 3 NBA gamblers? lol
If I was a gambling man, I would bet over 90% of sports players are dirty gambling.