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Tag: illegal sports betting

  • Over 30 charged in mafia-linked sports betting and poker schemes

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    PORTLAND/MIAMI: Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are among more than 30 people charged in connection with illegal sports betting and rigged poker games tied to organized crime, authorities said on October 23.

    According to federal prosecutors, Rozier and others were part of a sports betting scheme that used insider NBA information, while Billups is accused in a separate case involving poker games backed by Mafia families.

    The indictment lists nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida-based NBA player, an Oregon resident who played in the league between 1997 and 2014 and became a coach in 2021, and a relative of Rozier.

    Both men are well-known in the basketball world. Billups, a five-time NBA All-Star and Hall of Fame inductee, became Portland’s head coach in 2021 and signed a multi-year extension this year. Rozier, drafted in 2015, has played for Boston, Charlotte, and Miami.

    Prosecutors allege Rozier and others used private information — such as player injuries or team strategies — to place or assist in bets that could affect the outcome of NBA games. In return, they allegedly received payments or a share of profits.

    New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said players sometimes altered their performance or left games early to influence bets. In one case, Rozier allegedly told others he would leave a game with a “fake injury” while playing for the Charlotte Hornets, helping his associates win thousands of dollars in wagers.

    U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. called the operation “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since sports betting became legal in much of the U.S.” Six people were accused of a betting conspiracy, which authorities say relied on confidential NBA information to profit illegally.

    The second case involves 31 defendants accused of running a nationwide network of underground poker games, mainly in the New York area. Prosecutors say the games were fixed using hidden technology that allowed players to cheat victims out of millions of dollars. Mafia families and former professional athletes allegedly supported the poker network.

    Attorney Jim Trusty, representing Rozier, criticized the arrest, saying his client had cooperated with prosecutors. “Instead of allowing him to surrender, they staged a photo op,” he said, calling the arrest a “public embarrassment.”

    Federal investigators said the cases involve “tens of millions of dollars” in fraud, theft, and crypto-related schemes. “Everyone will be held accountable,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Patel.

    Authorities confirmed that 31 people are in custody, and others are expected to surrender in the coming days.

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  • NBA sports betting case: What is a ‘prop bet’ and why are they a concern?

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    Young men tend to be the dominant demographic group that participates in sports betting. And so I’m actively developing *** course at Carnegie Mellon University to teach freshman students about sports betting. Uh, and I was motivated by this, uh, from my time as an instructor of literally seeing students. On campus, talk about sports betting, engage in sports betting on their phones in the classroom. And my view was we should tackle this head on as statistics instructors. I teach statistics and probability theory, and that’s underpinning, understanding all of these types of bets and recognizing. How, how much could they actually win? What is the expected value of placing these bets? And so of the bets people can make and consider, one of the types of bets that really do have *** low probability of winning are parlays or even more specifically, same game parlays. Uh, and these are bets which by design. *** low probability, uh, where they rely on several types of bets, uh, being correct at the same time, uh, each of which have their individual probabilities, but the idea is maybe the payoff could be great and so people might lean *** little into those, but they tend to be so rare that in general, should probably avoid. Take advantage of different types of responsible gaming resources that are out there. There’s information from the responsible Gambling Council, the National Council on Problem Gambling, and there’s tools within sports books that you can use. They’re required to have front and center about limiting how much are you going to bet on *** given day.

    NBA sports betting case: What is a ‘prop bet’ and why are they a concern?

    Updated: 8:56 AM PDT Oct 23, 2025

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    Six people, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were charged Thursday with participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said.Players are accused of altering their performance or taking themselves out of games early, affecting the players’ stats for a game. What is a ‘prop bet’ and how does it relate to this case? A prop is a type of wager that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish over or under a certain total of points, rebounds, assists and more.As it relates to the case, in one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told others he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing others to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Posts still online from March 23, 2023 show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.Rozier and other defendants “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says. The NBA has expressed concerns about prop bets, and other sports have also openly worried about the potential for manipulation. Such bets — and bettors losing on them — have also exposed athletes to often hateful criticism from both fans in arenas and online.

    Six people, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were charged Thursday with participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said.

    Players are accused of altering their performance or taking themselves out of games early, affecting the players’ stats for a game.

    What is a ‘prop bet’ and how does it relate to this case?

    A prop is a type of wager that allows gamblers to bet on whether a player will exceed a certain statistical number, such as whether the player will finish over or under a certain total of points, rebounds, assists and more.

    As it relates to the case, in one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told others he was planning to leave the game early with a “supposed injury,” allowing others to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

    Posts still online from March 23, 2023 show that some bettors were furious with sportsbooks that evening when it became evident that Rozier was not going to return to the Charlotte-New Orleans game after the first quarter, with many turning to social media to say that something “shady” had gone on regarding the prop bets involving his stats for that night.

    Rozier and other defendants “had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players’ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.

    The NBA has expressed concerns about prop bets, and other sports have also openly worried about the potential for manipulation. Such bets — and bettors losing on them — have also exposed athletes to often hateful criticism from both fans in arenas and online.

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