Trail Blazers’ Chauncey Billups Pleads Not Guilty to Gambling Charges
Posted on: November 24, 2025, 02:10h.
Last updated on: November 24, 2025, 03:26h.
- Chauncey Billups is facing two charges, each with a maximum 20-year prison sentence
- Portland Trail Blazers coach and Hall of Fame player accused of being “face card” in elaborate poker scheme
- Billups pleaded not guilty in New York federal court
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty in a New York City federal court Monday morning to charges of money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy connected to his alleged involvement in a rigged poker game scheme.
Billups, who was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame after a 17-year career in the NBA, is accused of profiting directly from a scheme involving members of the Mafia. The former player is the biggest name among more than 30 co-defendants after the FBI announced arrests across 11 US states last month.
The poker games in question, which took place in New York City, East Hampton, and elsewhere in the US, going back to 2019, included the use of rigged card shuffling machines and wireless technology to fix the games and cheat players out of millions of dollars.
Billups was allegedly the “face card” — the celebrity used to lure wealthy people into the Texas Hold’em poker games. According to the indictments, a portion of the games’ proceeds went to pay members of the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese mob families, who were in part called on to enforce gambling debts through extortion and assault.
October Indictments
Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, said his client is a “man of integrity”.
To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall of Fame legacy, his reputation and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” said Heywood previously.
Prosecutors first announced the indictments on October 23. The charges against Billups carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.
Billups retired as a player in 2014. He was hired as Portland’s coach in 2022 and signed a multiyear extension with the organization earlier this year. According to Spotrac, Billups earned US$106.8 million over his playing career. Billups is on unpaid leave from the Trail Blazers.
The other co-defendants in the poker scheme were also expected in New York court as the judge, prosecutors, and the defense attorney work out next steps. Former NBA player and coach Damon Jones was also charged, and has pleaded not guilty.
Like a ‘Hollywood Movie’
“Over four years ago, HSI New York uncovered the operation and worked tirelessly with HSI Newark, the FBI, the New York Waterfront Commission, and the NYPD to expose crimes that defrauded victims of at least seven million dollars and included violent robberies,” said HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel last month.
According to the indictment, a dealer used a shuffling machine to shuffle the cards randomly before dealing them to players at the table in a particular order. In this case, the machines had hidden technology where they read all the cards in the deck, and since the cards were always dealt in a particular order, the machines could determine which player had the winning hand.
That information was transmitted to an off-site person who was part of the operation, which was then transmitted back to another member of the conspiracy who was one of the players, referred to as the “Quarterback.” That person would secretly signal the information to other players at the table who were part of the conspiracy, by touching certain chips, for example.
The victims would lose tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, the indictment claimed.
$7 Million in Losses
The defendants and their co-conspirators bet accordingly to ensure that the unsuspecting victims lost money. Through the rigged poker schemes, the defendants caused losses to victims of at least US$7 million.
The arrests of members from three La Cosa Nostra crime families is a stark reminder that they are not averse to working together to advance their sophisticated schemes when it serves their interest,” said Phoebe Sorial, executive director of the New York Waterfront Commission. “Disruption of their illegal gambling proceeds weakens their grip on our region, particularly in the Port of New York where they have long held influence.”
“The New York Waterfront Commission, in close coordination with its federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, remains unwavering in its commitment to dismantle these criminal enterprises by severing the illicit revenue streams that sustain them,” Sorial added.
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