The federal sports gambling investigation unveiled in Brooklyn on October 23, 2025, charged 34 people across two linked indictments, reaching from Mafia-backed underground poker rooms into NBA locker rooms. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones are among the defendants, accused of using confidential league information to help gamblers win illegal bets or of lending their celebrity to rigged high-stakes card games. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York is prosecuting both cases, and the FBI’s Crime and Corruption in Sport and Gaming program coordinated the investigation.
The Two Indictments
Prosecutors filed the charges under two operations that share defendants and a theory of the fraud but cover separate schemes.
Operation Nothing But Bet
The sports betting indictment, Case No. 25-CR-323, charges six defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each count carries a maximum of 20 years. The defendants are Terry Rozier, Damon Jones, Eric Earnest, Marves Fairley, Shane Hennen, and Deniro Laster.
The scheme ran from roughly December 2022 through March 2024, according to prosecutors, and worked by selling non-public NBA information to professional gamblers. Insider knowledge about player injuries, availability, and intentions was used to place or facilitate fraudulent “under” and spread wagers on games involving the Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic, Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Toronto Raptors.
The most detailed allegation involves Rozier. Prosecutors say that before a March 23, 2023, game between the Hornets and the New Orleans Pelicans, Rozier told his childhood friend Deniro Laster that he planned to leave early due to a “supposed injury.” Laster then sold that information to co-conspirators, who placed bets accordingly. Rozier played nine minutes and 34 seconds before exiting the game.
Damon Jones, formerly of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is accused of texting a co-conspirator in February 2023 that a prominent Lakers player would be out for a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, telling the recipient to “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out.”
Operation Royal Flush
The poker indictment, Case No. 25-CR-314, is a seven-count filing naming 31 defendants on charges of wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, extortion, and robbery. Prosecutors allege the defendants cheated victims out of at least $7.15 million in rigged underground poker games dating back to April 2019.
The alleged cheating relied on hidden technology. Rigged shuffling machines contained devices that read every card in a deck, according to the indictment, and transmitted the information to an off-site conspirator, who relayed it by cellphone to a player at the table known as a “Quarterback” or “Driver.” That player used prearranged physical signals to tip off teammates. Other tools allegedly included hidden cameras in chip trays, x-ray tables that could read face-down cards, and special contact lenses or eyeglasses designed to read pre-marked cards.
The defendants include members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese organized crime families. Billups and Jones are accused of acting as “face cards” who used their celebrity to lure victims into the games. Jones is charged in both indictments, the only defendant to appear in each.
Where the NBA Defendants Stand
Terry Rozier
Rozier was arraigned on December 8, 2025, in Brooklyn federal court and pleaded not guilty to both counts. He was released on a $3 million bond secured by his Florida home, with conditions that include surrendering his passport, a ban on gambling, and travel limited to Florida, Ohio, and New York. His attorney, Jim Trusty, said he would file a motion to dismiss on constitutional grounds. Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall set the next hearing for March 3, 2026.
The NBA placed Rozier on immediate unpaid leave after his arrest. The league retains authority to expel him if an anti-gambling rule violation is proven, which would void the remainder of his Heat contract.
Chauncey Billups
Billups, a Basketball Hall of Famer, pleaded not guilty in November 2025. He remains on indefinite unpaid leave from the Trail Blazers, who named Tiago Splitter as interim head coach. A federal judge set his trial for November 2, 2026.
Damon Jones
Jones initially pleaded not guilty, then entered plea negotiations that became public at a hearing in early November 2025. On April 28, 2026, he pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one for each case. Prosecutors recommended a sentencing range of 21 to 27 months for the sports betting scheme and 63 to 78 months for the poker fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for January 6, 2027.
Jontay Porter
Porter is not among the 34 October 2025 defendants, but he is central to how the broader investigation developed. The NBA banned the former Raptors player for life in April 2024 after finding he had disclosed confidential health information to a sports bettor, intentionally exited games to ensure betting outcomes, and placed at least 13 bets on NBA games himself, wagering a total of $54,094 and netting $21,965 in winnings. Porter pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in July 2024. Court documents revealed he had texted a co-conspirator from the Raptors locker room during a game, saying he intended to limit his statistics. His sentencing was scheduled for mid-2025, with guidelines suggesting 41 to 51 months.
The Wire Fraud Theory and Its Weak Spot
Both NBA cases rest primarily on wire fraud conspiracy, which lets prosecutors reach schemes involving deception transmitted through interstate communications. The government alleges the defendants defrauded legal sportsbooks by violating terms of use that prohibit betting with non-public information and by using straw bettors, which it treats as materially false representations made to obtain money through interstate wires.
That theory is not airtight. The Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Ciminelli v. United States rejected the “right to control” theory of wire fraud, holding that the statute covers only schemes to deprive victims of traditional property interests, not merely the right to make informed business decisions. Defense attorneys are expected to argue that sportsbooks’ terms of service do not create the kind of traditional property interest the wire fraud statute protects. Rozier’s attorney has already signaled a constitutional challenge, and legal commentators have said the government’s case could face headwinds if courts read Ciminelli narrowly.
The money laundering counts in both cases are built on the wire fraud allegations. If the underlying fraud counts fall, the money laundering charges would likely fall with them.
The Malik Beasley Inquiry
NBA guard Malik Beasley was swept into the federal probe but followed a different track. Gambling industry sources flagged unusually heavy betting on Beasley’s statistical props around January 2024, while he was with the Milwaukee Bucks. In one game, the odds on his recording fewer than 2.5 rebounds shifted sharply because of a surge of action on the under. Beasley finished with six rebounds.
By August 2025, Beasley’s attorneys announced he was no longer a target of the federal probe, though prosecutors had not fully cleared him. The NBA opened its own internal review. The investigation, which became public in late June 2025, caused a near-complete three-year, $42 million contract with the Detroit Pistons to collapse. As of late October 2025, Beasley remained an unsigned free agent, and his attorneys said he would not cooperate with federal investigators.
The NBA’s Response
The league moved quickly after the arrests. In addition to placing Billups and Rozier on unpaid leave, the NBA sent a memo to all 30 teams announcing a review of its injury reporting policies, with a focus on earlier and tighter protocols for declaring players eligible or ineligible. The league also directed teams to assess the “dire risks” associated with gambling.
The NBA had already revised its cell phone policy after the Porter case, prohibiting phone use by players and coaches during games once it emerged that Porter had texted co-conspirators from the locker room mid-game.
Congressional Scrutiny
Lawmakers responded within a day of the arrests. On October 24, 2025, bipartisan leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to Commissioner Adam Silver requesting a briefing by October 31. A Senate committee chaired by Senator Ted Cruz asked for a separate written briefing with a November 10 deadline. On November 5, NBA league attorneys and a gambling consultant met with House committee staff, though no NBA officials or lawmakers attended. The Senate briefing had not yet been submitted as of that date.
Members pressed the NBA on why Rozier had not been disciplined earlier, given that the investigation had been known internally. The league responded that it had not “cleared” Rozier of wrongdoing but had been unable to prove he broke league rules or committed federal crimes, citing its lack of subpoena power compared with federal investigators. The House committee also sent a letter to the NCAA questioning a policy change that allows student-athletes to bet on professional sports.
No federal legislation on sports betting integrity had been introduced or advanced as of early 2026, though lawmakers signaled further hearings could follow if the NBA’s responses proved unsatisfactory.
What This Means for Fans and Bettors
The federal cases are criminal prosecutions aimed at insiders and their alleged partners, not at ordinary bettors or the sportsbooks themselves. Civil lawsuits against DraftKings, FanDuel, and other platforms over addictive design features are moving through state and federal courts on a separate track, and they have had mixed results. A federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a class action against DraftKings in March 2026, ruling the company’s conduct did not meet the legal threshold for extreme and outrageous behavior, and many platforms carry mandatory arbitration clauses and class-action waivers that make such suits harder to bring.
For the integrity cases, the next milestones are concrete. Rozier’s next hearing is March 3, 2026. Billups is set for trial on November 2, 2026. Jones is scheduled to be sentenced on January 6, 2027. The NBA retains the authority to expel any player found to have violated its anti-gambling rules, which would void a contract regardless of the federal outcome. And because the whole prosecution leans on wire fraud conspiracy, how courts apply Ciminelli to sportsbook terms of service may matter as much as any single piece of evidence about what happened on the floor.