U.S. Details Gambling Cases Involving Pro Athletes and Mafia Families
45 comments
·October 23, 2025nradov
ClarityJones
Professional sports used to exist to profit off viewership, and thus games would occasionally be rigged to increase entertainment value and align with market demand. However, the authenticity carried a large part of why the sports were interesting to watch.
Now, sports exist to facilitate gambling. Sports are interesting to viewers who have money on the line, and thus the authenticity is irrelevant and actually undermines the sport. Every gambler wants to believe they have an edge and that the outcomes are rigged... in their favor. If the outcomes are determined by the players simply trying their best, then what's the point of gambling?
gadders
You know sports betting has existed in other counties for dozens of years, right?
All these people making predictions like this is some bold leap into the unknown but it's been legal in the UK since the 1960s.
piker
The UK hath no fury like a forbidden US market unleashed.
SoftTalker
Also been legal in Vegas for decades, including the days of "Lefty" Rosenthal and the Stardust Hotel when the mob was deeply entrenched there.
mycodendral
NBA legends. Rigged shuffling machines. Specialized contact lenses. Instagram mafiosos. This case is incredible.
glenstein
I guess Austin Powers predicts the future:
>Mr. Nocella said the technology also included “specially designed contact lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big.”
This technology (in a fictionalized eyepatch form) was the setup of the "I also like to live dangerously" joke.
Teever
I've wondered about the feasibility of doing something similar with scratch lottery tickets.
The way I envision it working is a customer wearing the magic glasses says they have superstitious beliefs and they need the convenience store clerk to spread the tickets out so that they can 'see the aura' or w.e. of the tickets so they can pick a winning one.
I'm curious if this is even illegal. I assume that somewhere it would be but I bet that in a lot of places it isn't and if you were subtle about it you could get away with it for years.
Of course this all relies on the idea that the sensor is something that fits in glasses, or can be discretely hidden in a broach or something they wear with the video feed displayed on their glasses.
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vincefutr23
Do they have proof Chauncey conspired in and profited from the rigging? Seems like he got appearance fees in under ground games? Interesting if the prosecution can tie him to the fraud itself. Announcing it in connection with actual game rigging interesting for a case that has nothing really to do with basketball.
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"One indictment in the case lists 32 defendants, including the former N.B.A. player and coach Damon Jones and the Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, who are both charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, according to the docket sheet in the case. Many of the other defendants also face those charges, along with counts accusing them of operating an illegal gambling enterprise and conspiracies to commit extortion and robbery."
They don't necessarily have or need evidence that Billups was aware of the rigging, just the regular financial crimes of taking payments from the Mafia that will presumably get him to cooperate.
silexia
Ban all gambling again, it is so destructive to the lives of so many people who get addicted.
kjkjadksj
Ever since the Gilbert Arenas bust I’ve considered this to be not uncommon. Just from the circles these athletes run in and the type of fun people tend to have with that amount of money available. Even without that amount of money plenty of people gamble informally on most anything.
Really bad look for the NBA picking up a second major scandal this year, illegal Balmer payments to Kawhi Leonard being the first.
duxup
What amazes me is some folks who I thought were smart guys got involved in all this, Chauncey Billups.
nextworddev
Wonder if the whole Ippei thing was part of a bigger rabbit hole too
heywoods
"They used advanced wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand and then pass that information to the defendants and co-conspirators."
Can anyone take a guess at what this means?
bobbiechen
I think this refers to RFID-embedded playing cards, which have apparently been used at the World Series of Poker before: https://www.wsop.com/news/wsop-livestreaming-all-summer-with...
>The card information will be known to the viewers by using RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology for the very first time at the WSOP. Each card has a microchip embedded in it that has no impact on the cards or play, but with a specially-outfitted poker table, can send an encrypted signal to decipher the card’s rank and suit. The WSOP has used this technology during the 2012-13 WSOP Circuit season with success, and it is found throughout European poker events as well.
Our_Benefactors
What’s going on with the formatting in this article? Why is every other paragraph broken by another authors byline? Is this some anti-ai posturing by NYT? They’ve made the article harder to read for no reason.
zuminator
It's not an article per se, it's a kind of live news feed, with each post showing the author.
The pro sports leagues made a Faustian bargain when they partnered with sports books like FanDuel and BetMGM. Those deals brought in licensing revenue and drove up short term fan engagement because the punters betting on games watch the whole thing without switching channels. But long term I think it's going to burn their business model. The temptation for players to take a bribe is huge and now every time fans see something happen on the field that seems unexpected they start to doubt whether it's real. If the leagues don't get a handle on this then in a few decades they'll be seen as jokes: anyone still watching will be doing it for campy or ironic entertainment like professional wrestling.