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Two former NBA players-turned-coaches, one of whom is a Hall of Famer, were arrested Thursday for alleged involvement in a rigged poker scheme in which members of the La Cosa Nostra crime families were also named as defendants.
Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones, the latter of whom is also a defendant in the Terry Rozier sports betting case, were charged with conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The two are alleged to have knowingly participated in rigged poker games dubbed “face cards,” who the Justice Department said were “members of the cheating teams and received a portion of the criminal proceeds in exchange for their participation in the scheme.”
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Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were arrested Thursday as part of an illegal poker scheme. (Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images; Bill Frakes/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
“Billups and Jones, in particular … were used to attract victims to the games because of their status as former professional athletes,” the DOJ said.
The scheme resulted in victims losing at least $7.15 million as of April 2019, according to the Justice Department.
With successful NBA careers both playing and on the sidelines, however, one wonders what could lead them to allegedly become embroiled in such schemes.
“Well, they take risks. Athletes like it, they have a lot of adrenaline,” Meyer Lansky II, the famous mobster’s grandson, speculated in a Pakinomist Digital in a recent interview. “They think that not only can they have millions to be paid by a team, but they can also make more money from their game. Or they have an addiction to games. That’s how many people are. They just want to get involved in it. Maybe they like the association with the people who are in charge of it or behind those game setups and situations again.”
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups watches from the sidelines during the first half against the San Antonio Spurs at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on April 6, 2025. (Soobum Im/Imagn Images)
WHO ARE CHAUNCEY BILLUPS, TERRY ROZIER AND DAMON JONES? NBA SUBJECT ARRESTED IN ILLEGAL HAZARD DEVICE
Lansky II added that there is a potential sense of power from the athletes themselves.
“I think anybody who gets an extraordinary amount of money and they have a lot of fans behind them, well, they can get to the point where they’re just blind to, ‘Nothing can happen to me. Why don’t I just do this?’ I think that with any background, not just sports. It is a powerful thing. Money and power and fame, it takes over sometimes,” he said.
As far as the Mafia was concerned, “sports was always a big thing,” according to Lansky II.
“It was pretty easy to fix. It’s always been beneficial…” he said. “Yeah, I think it’s pretty easy to access it. You can do it because if you’re in the casinos, you have surveillance and people watching, and it’s a lot riskier than it would be for sports betting.”
With the legalization of gambling throughout the country, it is much easier for athletes to become involved in harming the integrity of the game. However, Lansky II believes that illegal ties and schemes will always occur for several reasons.
Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups leaves the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse following a hearing following his arrest on federal gambling charges in Portland, Oregon, US on October 23, 2025. (John Rudoff/Reuters)
“Protection — you don’t have to come up with the front money, you place it with a bookie a lot of times. They’ll come after you if you don’t pay, but you know, reasons like that, they have a lot of control and a lot of power. They have different ways they do things with somebody. They’re influential themselves when they talk to maybe -one player. There is a connection with the mafia and famous people and sports people, they like that connection sometimes. It gives them something. It is a powerful entity in our society, so that is one of the reasons. They trust them too.”
Lansky II is releasing a book, “The Lansky Legacy,” on Tuesday in which he is a co-author that tells “the truth” about his grandfather and nixes “a lot of misconceptions” about him.
