An alleged Sports Gambling Operation with ties to organized crime has shaken the sports world after 31 people — including Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former Cleveland Cavaliers player Damon Jones — were arrested in connection with what federal authorities are calling a “historic criminal enterprise.”
According to CNN and USA Today, the arrests were part of a sweeping FBI investigation into two interconnected schemes — one involving insider sports betting and another involving illegal poker games backed by multiple Mafia families.
“Today we are here in New York to announce a historic arrest across a wide-sweeping criminal enterprise that enveloped both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra,” said FBI Director Kash Patel during a Thursday morning press conference. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud.”
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The first case centers on what prosecutor’s call “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
