Inside the Star-Studded, Mob-Run Poker Games That Allegedly Steal Millions From Players

NBA stars, mobsters, and marks with fat wallets are all part of an alleged ring of rigged poker games. Here's how these games are assembled, who attends, and how the purported cheating happens. Former NBA player and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups (center) exits the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse after his arraignment on October 23, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. To the uninitiated, the arrests of Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones last week for allegations of involvement in rigged illegal poker games may have appeared like an unusual collision of worlds. How could prosecutors claim that former NBA players (one a current coach), professional gamblers, and even mafia members all ended up rubbing elbows as part of the same high-tech cheating scheme that allegedly began in 2019 and ran for several years?