Rozier, Billups And Jones’ Arrests Threaten The NBA’s Integrity In An Age Of Legalized Sports Gambling

The biggest story of the NBA’s tip-off week wasn’t on the basketball court, but in the courtroom. Last week, the FBI publicized indictments of Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones. The three NBA stars and 31 other defendants face allegations of money laundering and widespread fraud that the FBI claims led to “tens of millions of dollars” in improperly earned winnings. Rozier, Billups and Jones’ arrests threaten the NBA’s integrity in an age of legalized sports gambling.

A Two-Pronged Conspiracy

The federal charges outline a detailed portrait of two separate schemes, with Jones allegedly acting as a key cog in both operations. The first indictment describes a mafia-linked illicit poker scheme. In this case, Jones and Billups are accused of acting as “face cards,” a term referencing celebrities who attract wealthy, unsuspecting victims called “fish” to games. The FBI alleges that Billups and Jones did not merely participate in the games, but were directly involved with the scam. The poker games were reportedly rigged using sophisticated card shuffling machines, x-ray tables, and infrared glasses and contacts, as well as secret cameras that were operated by mob associates. The indictment claims that this scheme was used to defraud victims out of more than seven million dollars.

The second indictment alleges sports betting fraud that specifically targeted NBA games, naming Jones and Rozier as notable defendants. The reported main method of attack in this case was the manipulation of so-called “prop bets,” where bettors wager on aspects of an individual athlete’s performance. The most stunning allegation from the indictment against Rozier dates back to March 2023, when the Heat guard was a member of the Charlotte Hornets. Federal prosecutors claim Rozier told several close members of his entourage, including a childhood friend who was also charged in the case, that he would fake an injury to leave a game against the New Orleans Pelicans early. Rozier ultimately only played ten minutes against the Pelicans, ensuring the pay out on numerous prop bets wagering on the “under” for his statistics. According to the allegations, Rozier’s associates placed nearly $200,000 in bets, and Rozier counted the cash proceeds with his friend in the guard’s own home.

Though Billups is not named in the second indictment, the alleged “Co-conspirator No. 8” in the case is depicted as a coach since 2021 and an NBA player from 1997 to 2014, a timeline aligning perfectly with Billups’ career. The FBI alleges this co-conspirator told a defendant that the Trail Blazers would purposely lose a March 2024 game against the Chicago Bulls to improve their NBA Draft Lottery odds. This non-public information allegedly furthered the defendants’ confidence in the outcome, leading them to placing large bets. Soon after the bets were placed, the team publicly announced that key role players like Jusuf Nurkic and Damian Lillard would sit out for the game.

Finally, Damon Jones allegedly leveraged his extensive league-wide connections to distribute inside information to gamblers. The indictment describes a text message that Jones sent in February 2023, telling a co-conspirator to place a large bet on the Milwaukee Bucks for that night because, “Player 3 is out.” LeBron James, who Jones played with and later coached, is reported to be “Player 3,” a premise reinforced by the fact that James ultimately sat out of the game described.

A Troubling Corruption Trend?

Rozier, Billups and Jones’ arrests weren’t isolated events. Rather, they’re an outcome of a culmination of investigations snaring other public figures, including another NBA player. Federal authorities in the current cases have confirmed that the new indictments are connected to the investigation leading to former Toronto Raptors player, Jontay Porter’s lifetime NBA ban. Porter, who has since pleaded guilty to wire fraud, was found to have faked multiple injuries to influence prop bets and was supposedly extorted by the same criminal group linked to Jones and Rozier in the indictments. This alleged connectivity FBI prompts questions over whether Rozier, Billups and Jones’ arrests threaten the NBA’s integrity in an age of legalized sports gambling.

In theme, the allegations draw parallels to another notable case. Earlier this year, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was arrested for his alleged connection to a poker operation linked to organized crime. Arenas’ case has not been publicly tied to the recent FBI indictments, but alleges the same pattern of using celebrity athletes to add legitimacy and attract victims to rigged games run by criminal enterprises.

Each of these cases spotlights the most significant threat to game league integrity in an age of legalized sports gambling: proposition bets. It is immensely more difficult for an individual player to fix the outcome of an entire game than to fake an injury, intentionally commit a turnover or purposefully miss shots to stay under a given statistical threshold. Ironically, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver commented on this very issue days before the most recent arrests. Silver claimed that the NBA, “asked some of [its] partners to pull back some of the prop bets,” because they can be incredibly “easy to manipulate.” There’s also a reported Congressional briefing on the horizon.

Time will tell how the cases against Rozier, Billups and Jones unfold. Whether Silver and the league continue to push sports gaming partners to limit prop bets will also remain newsworthy. And how Congress and the FBI investigate the sports gaming space is an interesting focus for all sport industry participants.