Professional poker player Matt Berkey
Matt Berkey, a big-time professional poker player, said in a 2023 podcast that he heard former Detroit Pistons star Chauncey Billups was involved in rigged high-stakes poker games around 2019 — first in Los Angeles, then in Las Vegas.
Berkey said on the "Only Friends Podcast" that he had been invited to the game but heard from close friends they were not on the up-and-up.
We first saw this story in The Detroit News.
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Chaucey Billups (Screenshot from Trail Blazers' video)
Billups is one of 31 defendants in a federal indictment out of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office, accused of participating in rigged poker games linked to New York crime families.
Berkey said during the podcast:
“There are a lot of stories about it. There’s one that cropped up — this must have been like five years ago, 2019-ish — where there was this game. It started in L.A. and then it came to Vegas for a few days, and it was all built around Chauncey Billups.”
“And I heard about the game, and the person who told me about it was like, ‘Look, I know the game runners. I’m telling you 100% this game is on the up-and-up.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I know a lot of the people that are involved, and I’m telling you 100% that it is not on the up-and-up.’”
“You know, we kind of went back and forth, and I agreed that I just wasn’t going to go play it. But I had some friends who went and played it both in L.A. and in Vegas, and it obviously was for sure confirmed to be cheated… people who clearly didn’t even understand the rules of no-limit hold’em (were winning).”
“Only the pros are losing… you know, it was basically confirmed among all of the pros that the game was cheated, but there’s just no recourse. They got absolutely filleted.”
The federal indictment unsealed Thursday described Billups as a “Face Card,” meaning he was allegedly used as a big-name player in rigged poker games to make them appear more legitimate to unsuspecting wealthy gamblers.
In April 2019, the indictment alleges that Billups and several others organized and participated in rigged games in Las Vegas and defrauded victims of at least $50,000. The indictment also alleges they used a rigged shuffling machine provided by Robert Stroud, aka “Black Rob.”
A second indictment unsealed Thursday named six defendants (not Billups) for providing insider NBA information to help gamblers.
But some reports have surfaced that Billups may be linked to that indictment.
CBS Sports reported:
Billups, however, might also be tied to sharing insider information with bettors as Blazers coach. Though he was not named in the Rozier indictment, a person referred to as "Co-Conspirator 8" matches Billups' description: "a resident of Oregon" and "an NBA player from approximately 1997 through 2014, and an NBA coach since at least 2021."
The indictment alleges that Co-Conspirator 8 supplied information about the Blazers resting key players ahead of a March 24, 2023, contest against the Bulls before it was public. Damian Lillard, Jusuf Nurkic, Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons all sat out in a game the Blazers lost by 28 points.
It's unclear why he is not named. It's possible the feds didn't have enough evidence, are still planning to charge him, or that he's cooperating.
Billups, 49, an NBA Hall of Famer, faces one count of wire fraud conspiracy and four counts of money laundering conspiracy. He has been placed on leave as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, a position he has held since 2021.
In a 2023 podcast episode, poker player Matt Berkey told a story about how he heard people playing poker with Chauncey Billups
and knew he was scamming and stealing money from an illegal gambling ring pic.twitter.com/kGsbYZOH5B
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod (@big_business_) October 23, 2025