National World Top Stories Update Thursday 23 October, 2025
An NBA player and coach are among more than 30 people charged in connection with schemes involving illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the mafia.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is accused of participating in an illegal sports betting scheme using private insider NBA information, officials said.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups is charged in a separate indictment alleging a wide-ranging scheme to rig underground poker games that were backed by mafia families.
The charges are related to two major cases, one involving sports betting and the second involving rigged poker games, US attorney Joseph Nocella Jnr said at a news conference with FBI director Kash Patel.
In the first case, six defendants are accused of participating in an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams, Mr Nocella said.
He called it “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalised in the United States”.
The second case involves 31 defendants in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games, Nocella said.
The defendants include former professional athletes accused of using technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games in the New York area that were backed by mafia families, he said.
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