Billups Pleads Not Guilty to Gambling Charges
Posted on: November 24, 2025, 02:10h.
Last updated on: November 24, 2025, 02:37h.
- Billups 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 pleads not guilty in New York federal court this morning
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty in a New York City federal court this morning to charges of money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy connected to his alleged involvement in a rigged poker game scheme.
Billups, who also is a member of the basketball of Hall of Fame after a 17-year career in the NBA, is accused of profiting directly in a scheme involving members of the Mafia. The former player is the biggest name among more than 30 co-defendants after FBI announced arrests across 11 U.S. states last month. The poker games in question, in New York City, East Hampton and elsewhere in the U.S., 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 high-octane indictments a portion of proceeds went to pay members of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese New York mob families, who were in part called on to enforce gambling debts through extortion and assault.
October Indictments
Both charges carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.
Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, said his client was 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 Oct. 23. The other co-defendants in the poker scheme were also expected in New York court as the judge, prosecutors and the defence attorney work out next steps.
Former NBA players and coach Damon Jones was also charged and has pled not guilty. Billups retired as a player in 2014. He was hired as Portland’s coach in 2022, and earlier this year signed a multi-year extension with the organization.
According to Spotrac Billups made USD $106.8 million over his playing career. Billups is on unpaid leave from the Trail Blazers.
$106.8 Million in Career Earnings
Law enforcement has described the scheme as something right out of a Hollywood mob 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 $7 million dollars and included violent robberies,” said HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ricky Patel last month.
According to the indictment, a dealer uses 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 USD $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, 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.”
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