NBA HOFer Chauncey Billups arrested in poker-related gambling probe
https://www.si.com/nba/chauncey-billups-...
Berkey called it! Back in 2023. At the 27:15 mark…
I wonder what the poker operation was exactly. An old underground game ran by the Mafia or what? What was the NBA player involvement? It’ll be interesting as more details come out.
Seems like Chauncey was, at the very least, the ‘draw’ to attract players to the game.
According to Berkey in the video, the pros knew something was ‘off’. But it doesn’t seem that they knew exactly how the cheating was being executed.
Seems like Chauncey was, at the very least, the ‘draw’ to attract players to the game.
According to Berkey in the video, the pros knew something was ‘off’. But it doesn’t seem that they knew exactly how the cheating was being executed.
Yeah , sick callout by Berkey 2 years ago . Articles seem to mention rfid being used it the cards , but you’re right seems like the pros knew they were being cheated but not how .
Hopefully these are the kinds of things that wake people up and move away from the recent trend of private games and back to casinos .
Rigged shuffling machines, X-Ray tables that could read face down cards (guessing this is different than RFID?), secret cameras, all being mentioned at press conference.
https://x.com/ginamilan_/status/19813679...
Here is the poker part of press conference. The victims were called fish. lol
Disappointing that this isn't a multi-page thread already. 20 years ago a story like this would have probably brought down the forum server due to all the traffic.
This is big time stuff.
Rigged shuffling machines, X-Ray tables that could read face down cards (guessing this is different than RFID?), secret cameras, all being mentioned at press conference.
Plus mafia connections and NBA front men. This story has it all! It will make a great movie.
I don't understand why anyone from the NBA would get involved with something like this.
Reading through the articles there was also "insider" sports betting going on. The NBA connects would relay info about when star players would be sitting out games and they had a network of people that would bet on the opposition. If there was point shaving going on this is going to be a huge scandal that also shakes the NBA and sports betting worlds.
Disappointing that this isn't a multi-page thread already. 20 years ago a story like this would have probably brought down the forum server due to all the traffic.
This is big time stuff.
but now we're following Paisting's stories instead
From NYT:
The rigged poker games sanctioned by organized crime featured an elaborate high-tech scheme that involved “cheating teams” whose members worked together to beat the victims, according to one of the indictments.
While the victims thought they were playing in a “straight” illegal card game game “gambling against other participants on equal footing,” in reality the defendants and their co-conspirators, who were the other players in the game, worked together on the teams. They used advanced wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand and then pass that information to the defendants and co-conspirators.
Electronic cheating is so prevalent in poker these days, one can’t even find an illegal mafia-run backroom game that’s fair.
What’s this world coming to?
I don't understand why anyone from the NBA would get involved with something like this.
It really depends on what someone like Billups knew. It wouldn't be unusual to see current or former NBA players in a private game. It wouldn't be unusual for those NBA guys to be promoted by the game runner in an attempt to get other rich whales to play. I have no problem believing that Billups took money to play in the game (or had an agreement to have all or part of any losses covered). If we take that fact as a given, then there are three possible scenarios.
1) Billups suspected the game was crooked, but he wasn't told explicitly that it was crooked.
2) Billups knew the game was crooked, but he didn't have a share of the profits from the cheating.
3) Billups knew the game was crooked and was actively participating (or at least sharing in the profits) from the cheating.
I am guessing that scenario 1 is the most likely.
Pictures of the X-ray table in this article.
It really depends on what someone like Billups knew. It wouldn't be unusual to see current or former NBA players in a private game. It wouldn't be unusual for those NBA guys to be promoted by the game runner in an attempt to get other rich whales to play. I have no problem believing that Billups took money to play in the game (or had an agreement to have all or part of any l
That could be. There's a lot we still don't know.
I wondered whether maybe the NBA guys started out just playing in these high stakes games, got into a bunch of debt and then participated in the scheme to pay back what they owed? People do have gambling problems, and sometimes no matter how much they make they'll gamble away more.
I don't understand why anyone from the NBA would get involved with something like this.
It really depends on what someone like Billups knew. It wouldn't be unusual to see current or former NBA players in a private game. It wouldn't be unusual for those NBA guys to be promoted by the game runner in an attempt to get other rich whales to play. I have no problem believing that
No, 3 is the 99% most likely scenario.
Id never play in an illegal game with a shuffling machine.
Poker is just a little side story here if it turns out these guys were betting on NBA games
