Chauncey Billups charged in connection with Mafia poker operation

Chauncey Billups was arrested on Thursday amid an FBI investigation into gambling, and the Portland Trail Blazers coach has been tied to a poker operation that involves the Mafia.

Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were both arrested by FBI agents on Thursday. Joseph Nocella Jr., the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a press conference on Thursday, that Billups has been charged in connection with an illegal poker ring that began as early as 2019.

Nocella said the operation, which was aided by various Mafia organized crime families, involved targeted victims — referred to as ‘fish’ — who were invited to play in high-stakes poker games that were rigged through various methods of cheating. The participants were allegedly lured by being offered a chance to play alongside former professional athletes, including Billups.

“The defendants used a variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies, some of which were provided by other defendants in exchange for a share of the profits from the scheme. For example, they used off-the-shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information to an off-site operator,” Nocella said. “The off-site operator sent the information via cell phone back to a co-conspirator at the table, and that person at the table was known as the ‘quarterback.’ The ‘quarterback’ then signaled, secretly, the information he had received to others at the table and together they used that information in order to win the games and to cheat the victims.

“The defendants used other cheating technologies such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera, special contact lenses or eye glasses that could read pre-marked cards, and an X-ray table that could read cards face-down on the table.”

The games were held in various locations across the United States, including The Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami and Manhattan.

Billups coached the Trail Blazers on Wednesday night in their season-opening game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, which they lost 118-114.

A five-time NBA All-Star who played 17 years in the league, Billups was hired as the head coach of the Blazers in 2021. The team finished 36-46 last year and has not had a winning record nor reached the postseason under Billups.

Billups, 49, was an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers for a brief period before he was became the head coach in Portland.

Billups played in the NBA from 1997-2014. He had his best years with the Detroit Pistons and led the team to an NBA title in 2004, when he was named NBA Finals MVP. Billups was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.