Mob Ties and Rigged Bets: Inside the N.B.A.’s Gambling Scandal

From the New York Times, [music] I'm. Natalie Kitroeff. This is The Daily. >> [music]. >> What's the story that rocked the sports. world? A multi-million dollar betting. scheme that led to more than 30 arrests, including current and former NBA [music]. players and coaches. Today, we go inside. the federal investigation [music]. into illegal gambling that has rocked. the NBA. You know, this is right out of. a movie. You're talking about [music]. mob stuff. You're talking about cheating.

at poker games, rigging poker games. The. alleged schemes involve the mafia, [music]. high-profile players, and the. manipulation of professional basketball. games to [music] rig and win bets. I. understand betting is legal, but I I I. don't think it's too much to ask of a. player or a coach do not engage in this. For me, it's all about trust. People. [music] watch this game because they. think it's real and fair. And I'm just. ashamed that they put themselves and put. their family and put the NBA in this. position. And there's old saying in the.

hood, all money ain't good money. I. talked to my [music] colleagues, Jonah. Bromwich and Jenny Vrentas, about the. shocking facts [music] of the cases and. the growing concern that the explosion. of online betting [music] may be. compromising the integrity of the sport. It's [music] Monday, October 27th. Jonah, the NBA season started last week.

Tons of storylines there. Huge week for. the league. But, the biggest story at. this moment for the NBA had nothing to. do with the games. It was this massive. announcement made by the FBI director, Cash Patel, on Thursday. So, walk me. through exactly what he said. Sure. So, 6:30 in the morning, we get this email. There's going to be this big. announcement, and no one really knows. what it is beforehand. We're getting. kind of bits and pieces of it. But then, people go into the room.

Good morning. And Cash Patel is there, and he starts. talking about these two enormously. consequential. schemes. Today, we are here in New York to. announce a historic arrest across a. wide-sweeping criminal enterprise that. envelops both the NBA and La Cosa. Nostra. So, the first case is the poker. case. And that is about a very. complicated mafia-involved scheme to rig.

poker games, and prominent NBA figures. were used almost as bait to attract the. victims to these games. There is no room for any type of. criminal behavior, be it on the world's. largest stage. or in the backrooms of tiny parlors. where guard games are being plugged. And. then, the second one intrudes more. closely on the life of the league. because this is. one player, various other. co-conspirators,

>> [music]. >> making bets about what's going to happen. in games based on their relationships. inside the locker room. It's not hundreds of dollars. It's not. thousands of dollars. It's not tens of. thousands of dollars. And what is. immediately clear in what he's talking. about [music] is that the scope of this. is enormous. We're talking about tens of millions of. dollars in fraud [music] and theft and. robbery. >> it hits the league in a place that the. league really doesn't want to be hit. And look, let's not, you know, mince. words. This is the insider trading saga.

for the NBA. >> [music]. >> Okay, let's take these schemes one by. one, and we'll start with the illegal. rigged poker games. How did this work? Who was there? What. happened? I want to know everything. So, what I'm about to describe, they. haven't been proven, and I'm largely. drawing on indictments from prosecutors. So, defense lawyers have not yet had a. say. It's not clear what they'll argue, and.

all these are just allegations for the. moment. Mhm. So, this is a kind of. remarkable story in its own right. because this is a story about pretty. high-tech rigging of illegal poker. games. They were held regularly at two. locations in New York. And what would. happen is. using two NBA figures as bait, the many, many people involved in this scheme. would have victims come to these games,

and they would use these advanced. shuffling machines that could tell them. which of them had the best hand, and. coordinate with that knowledge to win. this game and defraud victims of their. money. And who's running these poker. games? Like, who's everyone behind all. this? So, the mafia is is largely behind. all this. There's four different mafia. families. They're Bonannos, the. Gambinos, the Genoveses, and the. Luccheses that are involved in poker. games, and it does bring up this kind of.

image of Tony Soprano and then games. from that show. But, this is really. still happening. You know, the the mafia. still exists in New York. And one of the. things they do, one of the ways they. make money, is by getting these. operations off the street, out of the. public eye, and at the poker table. Okay, so you have this kind of old world. aspect of this where the mafia is. involved, but it sounds like it was kind. of high-tech. You mentioned these. advanced shuffling machines. Like, the. mechanism by which the cheating happens, it was pretty technological. Yeah, and.

there are a lot of kind of crazy. technologies involved in this. They're. all these kind of almost like James. Bond-like gadgets mixed in with this. mafia movie that we're hearing about. They had [music] decoy cell phones that. could detect which cards were on the. table at which time. They had playing. cards that had these kind of invisible. ink markings that you would had to wear. special contact lenses to see. What? And. the rigged shuffling machines you. mentioned, it's funny, they're not.

rigged in the way that they shuffle. >> [music]. >> What they can do is analyze, as they're. dealing a hand, the strength of that. hand relative to every other hand. they've dealt. [music]. So, the shuffling is above board, but. what happens is that the machine sends a. signal to an outside person known as the. operator. The operator then sends that. information back into the room to the. person they call the quarterback or the. driver, and everyone on the cheating. team knows, okay, we're going to. coordinate this knowing who has the best.

hand here. Can I ask how much money were these. games raking in? I think I'm used to the. idea of like a $25 poker night. So, just. lay out for me what amount is being. stolen in this kind of cheating? Like, a. truly absurd amount. An amount that. really kind of makes us curious about. who exactly is playing at these games. Mhm. So, for example, John Doe number. one is named in the indictment. That's.

the first victim. John Doe number one. loses $1.8 million. in a single game. And so, overall, we're. talking about millions and millions of. dollars at these games, which are held. regularly both in the New York locations. I mentioned, but also all over the. United States, the indictment says. And you said that the NBA players. involved, they were used as a draw for. the other marks that came. They made the. games cool. So, the implication is that. they were getting a cut of the winnings?

Like, were they in business with the. mafia? They're directly accused of. getting a cut of the winnings. So, yes, exactly. They are accused of doing. business with the mafia. One of whom is. quite well known to NBA fans, Chauncey. Billups, NBA champion, current head. coach for the Portland Trail Blazers. Yep. And the collection of guys at this. table is really fascinating, right? Cuz. it's. mafia members, and then it's these. almost sports betting nerds who love. poker. So, just imagine that game. Imagine the personalities that half the.

the side is cheating. It's just an. extraordinary scene to think about. Okay, I want to turn to the other. indictment. Cash Patel called this one. insider trading for the NBA. Is that accurate? What are we talking. about here? So, this is a scheme where, according to. the indictment, a NBA player and. co-conspirators traded on information. known only to them, known only to people. who would be inside the locker room, and. they used it to gamble on games with an.

advantage that no one else had. And. that's exactly how insider trading. works. You have information that is not. available to the public, and you use. that information to your financial. advantage. So, it's actually a perfect. explanation of what happened here. Tell. me a little bit more about how they used. it to their advantage. Like, specifically in this case, what were. they doing? How did they make money? So, there are a couple different ways. that they used the information that they. had access to. And the first example is. the most outrageous, and I think maybe. the most troubling for the NBA. So, the.

one active NBA player who is a defendant. here is a guy named Terry Rozier. Terry. Rozier, he's currently a guard on the. Miami Heat, but in 2023, he was a player. for the Charlotte Hornets. And while playing for the Hornets, told. his co-conspirators, "Hey, I'm going to. go out of this game early with an. injury, and no one knows that I'm going. to do that, including officials on my. own team." So, knowing that Rozier was. going to go out of this game early was. an enormous advantage, and it was an. advantage because his co-conspirators.

then bet that he would score fewer. points, that he would be less productive. in this game than he usually was. And of. course, they were right because when he. went out early, there was no chance that. he was going to make up those averages, and they were able to win hundreds of. thousands of dollars. So, what you're. talking about, those bets on how many. points he's going to score at a certain. point in the game, those are what's been. referred to as prop bets. Can you just. break down what prop bets are? Yeah, so.

I think when people who do not gamble on. sports consider sports betting, when. they consider it at all, they might. think that the easiest way to do it is. you're going to bet on who wins and who. loses. But sports gambling has gotten a. lot more sophisticated and you can bet. on all these different kinds of elements. of a game, including. an individual player's performance, an. individual player's performance in a. certain category like points scored, rebounds. The amount of betting. categories has become really vast and.

that's important here because it shows. you that just Terry Rozier, one person. on a team of at least 11 basketball. players, can actively impact betting. even if he can't ultimately control the. outcome of a game. And that's what's at issue here, not. just with Rozier, right? The idea is. that the information that was being. traded was used to manipulate bets on. individual events like this. Yeah, that's exactly right and I'll give you. another example and this one is.

eyebrow-raising not because it involves. the kind of obvious flagrant violation. that Rozier is accused of, but because. of the name it does involve. So, the. other NBA figure involved in this scheme. is a guy named Damon Jones and in. February 2023 he was an unofficial. assistant coach for the Los Angeles. Lakers. While he was in that role, he got. information that a prominent player, according to the indictment, named. player three, was not going to play in a. game.

Jones then quickly spread that. information to his co-conspirators. They. just bet on the Lakers losing that game. and the description of player three in. the indictment perfectly matches LeBron. James. Now, LeBron is not accused of any. wrongdoing, he's not even implicated, but you can see why this is such a huge. problem for the NBA because even the. specter of the possibility that a scheme. like this touched on their most. marketable star, the face of their sport. for more than a decade, hints at the.

issues when the integrity of an NBA game. begins to be called into question. Jonah, you've covered really big cases. for us, including Trump trials, Letitia. James arraignment. Where does this rank for you in the. pantheon of all of the cases you've been. looking at? How earth-shattering does it. feel? Yeah, in terms of the scale and. high-profile nature of what I often. cover, it doesn't quite touch those.

things, but criminal cases always in. some way touch on what's going on in. society. Like that seems like a silly. thing to say, but it's actually what. makes it so interesting. There's all this legality, there's all. these specifics of these indictments, but it always touches back with. something that's going on in the broader. world and I just see that this case, [music] like the other cases that I've. covered, really speaks to something. that's going on in the moment, in this. case exactly what's going on in sports. gambling [music] and why it poses such a. problem for these leagues in 2025.

Well, Jonah, thank you so [music] much. Of course, thank you for having me. After the break, I'll talk to my. colleague Jenny Vrentas about exactly. that, [music] how the proliferation of. sports betting may contribute to. scandals like this and the impact that. it's had on our culture. >> [music]. >> We'll be right back.

>> [music]. >> Jenny, we are here to talk to you about. the sports betting indictment. That just. seems like it has really huge. implications, definitely for the NBA and. maybe for sports in general. And in many. ways, it does seem as though sports. betting has proliferated in recent. years, especially these prop bets that. are central to this indictment. And this.

is a question that I think a lot of. people have been asking, what effect. will it have on the integrity of the. game? You've been covering this world for a. very long time, so let me just ask you, do you think that the explosion of. online sports betting enabled the. criminal conspiracy that was just. revealed? I think it creates conditions. in which gambling is more normalized, more part of society and there are more. chances for criminal activity. Obviously, these crimes are still in the.

stage where the people have been accused. and the crimes haven't been adjudicated, but I do think what we're seeing now. with this situation is this is what. sports leagues didn't want to happen. This is what fans didn't want to happen. And now that it's happened, okay, it's. one case, but it involves a lot of. people, it involves multiple players, coaches sharing information on multiple. teams, on multiple games. And so I do. think it's fair for fans and anyone who. loves sports in the United States to. wonder, is this just the tip of the.

iceberg? Okay, I want to get to the. question that you raised about whether. this is possibly way more widespread. than we even know, but just to slow down and pause for a. moment, can we walk through exactly what. this embrace of sports betting has. looked like from the perspective of the. leagues, fans and the players. themselves? Absolutely. It wasn't that long ago that. sports leagues were opposed to the. legalization of sports betting in the.

United States. However, in 2018 the. Supreme Court overturned a law that. effectively banned sports betting in. most of the country and as a. consequence, there were significant. business opportunities that came from. that that sports leagues wanted to take. advantage of. >> [music]. >> So they built partnerships with sports. books. You want to make every game. interesting? Step one, open the BetMGM. sports book. Step two, put some skin in. the game. And step three,

showtime. There are licensing deals. New arena? How about a new network? Welcome to. FanDuel Sports Network, your home for. Clippers basketball. There are signage. all over stadiums. >> [music]. >> Some stadiums have sports books inside. of them. You can even bet on games while. they're still being played. Seriously. >> [music]. >> During TV broadcast, there are prompts. to bet during the game. Now you're in. the ring with the king of sports books.

You know what to do. How quickly this. has changed in the last seven years is. dizzying. I'm a person that has followed. sports, covered sports for a long time. and even I am surprised by how quickly. betting has become embedded into how we. consume sports. Yeah, I should probably at this point. come out as a huge sports fan myself. I've also been shocked at just how much. all of this is plastered everywhere, how. unavoidable it is at halftime, at the.

games, it's everywhere. I think one of the things I didn't. understand though was these smaller prop. bets and how important they are to this. new infrastructure, to this new. industry. Yes, absolutely. The volume. and types of bets has exploded. exponentially over the last few years. and I think as a consequence of that, you are presenting more opportunities. for individual occurrences in the game. to potentially be manipulated because.

it's very hard to fix a game. You need. cooperation of the entire team, you. can't control everything that happens in. a game, but what you can do is you can. control in some level your individual. performance or the outcome of a single. period of time or a single. part of your game. Right, like if you're. a pitcher, obviously you can control the. kind of pitch you throw. If you're a. point guard, you can decide who gets the. ball at any point. I'm wondering if you. can walk me through the engagement. aspect of this. Like what does it do to.

a fan experience and to the overall. watching experience if people are. betting on each of these individual. outcomes? Right, exactly and I think. that's a huge piece of this conversation. because this is part of the reason that. leagues have embraced sports betting. because they believe that if people are. betting on games and during games, that. they will watch more games for longer. periods of time. And we've also seen. with this increase in these bets that. come during a game sort of keep people. watching and keep people interested in a.

game maybe you would have no interest in. watching otherwise and that all feeds. into fan engagement. The more eyes that. are on games, then the price of the. media rights deals, which are the. largest source of profit for the NBA and. the NFL, that goes up and so there you. see why there has been this push of more. betting opportunities throughout games. Let's talk about the league's economic. interests here. What has embracing. sports betting done for their bottom.

line? Yeah, I mean sports betting has. been a huge financial boon for sports. leagues. I mean they have partnerships. with sports betting operators that net. something around hundreds of millions of. dollars a year. They have stakes in. these data companies that sell. statistics from sports games to sports. books, which are used to create some of. these prop bets for instance. And so. it's become this ecosystem where sports. betting is so embedded in the business. interests of the leagues that it would.

be hard to back out at this point. >> They're just totally enmeshed. They're. totally enmeshed, absolutely. To just return to the conspiracy that. has been laid out in this indictment, I. can see a world in which people might. look at what's happened and say, look, actually the rise of online sports. betting, it allows you to track more. easily unusual bets and therefore it's. not the rise of online sports betting. that enabled this. This is just gambling. and actually we're in a position where.

where we can catch this more easily. But. on the other hand, it does seem as. though from what you're saying, it's. just become so much easier to bet on. every little tiny thing. It like it's. hard to imagine finding a bookie back in. the day who's willing to take a bet on. whether someone is going to hit a three. in the last two minutes of the third. quarter. And so there's a world in which. the proliferation itself. does pave the way for a scandal like. this. Yeah, I think it's sort of a both. things are true situation here and that.

it is true that sports books and sports. leagues work with integrity monitors. that are catching suspicious betting. activity and that those integrity. monitors played a role in spotting this. scandal. But I think the point that. you're making which I think is a true. one is that when you have this world in. which you can bet on so many things. through the course of a game you have to. consider the fact that there are more. chances for manipulation and it makes it.

harder to catch when there are so many. more opportunities. Let's talk about the. options for the NBA right now because. the incentives are kind of interesting. On the one hand, you can see how they'd. be worried if people start to en masse. doubt that what they're seeing on the. court is real. On the other hand, as you've said, this. is just a huge business for them. I. think the interesting thing is that game. integrity is actually something that all. of the stakeholders care about. The. sports books care about it, the leagues.

care about it, the better care about it. If fans start to believe that betting is. an influence for players on the court or. coaches of teams to start manipulating. games, it really does undercut the trust. and the experience that fans have when. they watch. What I do think is a. potential landing spot here is for. sports leagues to come together and say. we are going to limit or ban prop bets. However, on the sports book side, prop.

bets are a big part of their business. I. mean one estimate that I received would. be if you limited prop bets, you would. potentially be reducing the amount that. people bet by around 20%. That's. significant for sports books in their. business and so this could be an area. where you see what is now a shared. business interest colliding a little. bit. Okay, so we've talked about the. implications for the league, for the. fans. I want to ask about the players. because watching this all unfold, it.

made me think that you know, they're at. risk from this too. It raises the. possibility that suddenly the players. will be under more suspicion, right? That especially if they aren't doing. well, if they're injured or even if they. just miss a couple shots, that people. might think they're setting up a bet. Yeah, I think that's a really great. question and I'm glad you raised it. We've seen that players, you know, they'll get harassing messages from. angry bettors who a bet didn't go their. way. A lot of players have started to.

speak out about this. I think there's. another element here too, which is the. pressure from people around you to get. inside information from you and what we. saw in the federal indictments is there. were several cases in which people in. somebody's entourage or a childhood. friend or a trainer was sharing. information about the players and I. think where you could see the pressure. being the hardest to navigate is for. people who aren't paid millions of. dollars, you know, for college athletes. or people in lower tier pro leagues who.

might be getting pressure from people. for inside information and maybe the. money feels worth it to them. So I do. think there are a lot of consequences. for the players dealing with how much. sports gambling has become part of the. sports world that they're in and I think. you know, they haven't had any input. into that. I mean this is the world that. they're playing in, right? >> Right, this has been totally foisted on. them and they have to deal with the. consequences, it sounds like. Exactly.

You mentioned this earlier and I want to. just come back to it. How worried are. fans, are experts, are you that this. could be more widespread than just this. one scandal? You know, that this could. be in many different sports. There's a. world in which it sort of seems like you. kind of have to be worried about that, wondering whether anything you're. watching in any one of these leagues. could be manipulated at any moment. I. think it's fair for any of us to ponder.

that and I think once you start to. ponder that, then the cracks begin. >> [music]. >> Even in just this federal indictment, right? There were multiple teams, multiple games, multiple years, players, coaches. There were a lot of. parts of the NBA affected by this and I. think it's come up enough times that it. is a persistent concern that the leagues. are going to have to confront and. American [music] sports fans are going.

to have to reckon with more and more. >> [music]. >> Well, Jenny, thanks so much. Thank you. for having me. >> [music]. >> Since the indictments were announced, the House Committee on Energy and. Commerce has requested a briefing on the. scandal from NBA Commissioner Adam. Silver by this Friday, October 31st.

>> [music]. >> We'll be right back. >> [music]. >> Here's what else you should know today. On Sunday, Chinese and American. officials [music] said they'd agreed to. a framework of a trade deal ahead of a. meeting planned between President Trump. and China's [music] top leader Xi. Jinping later this week. Trade. negotiators for the two sides met in. Malaysia. An official said they. discussed a range of issues including.

Chinese restrictions [music]. on rare earth minerals, port fees that. the US recently slapped on Chinese ships. >> [music]. >> and an extension of a truce on tariffs. The details of the framework remain. unclear. >> [music]. >> The Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. said on ABC that he expected China to. delay [music] global export controls on. rare earths and that the US threat of. imposing 100% tariffs on China would be. averted. >> [music].

>> And the French police made arrests in. the brazen [music] jewelry heist last. week at the Louvre, though the. authorities didn't say how many people. were taken into custody. The Paris. prosecutor said in [music] a statement. that one man was taken into custody at. Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris as he. was trying to leave the country. [music]. It was not immediately clear whether the. police had recovered any of the stolen. jewelry which includes gem-studded royal. tiaras, necklaces, [music]. and earrings dating back to the 19th. century.

Today's episode [music] was produced by. Shannon Lynn, Anna Foley, and Diana. Wynn. It was edited [music] by Brennan. Klinkenberg, Lexy Dio, and Mike Benoît. Contains original music [music] by Dan. Powell, Alicia Betub, and Marion Lozano. And was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. >> [music].

[music]. >> That's it for the daily. I'm Natalie. Kitroeff. See you tomorrow. >> [music].