NBA HOFer Chauncey Billups arrested in poker-related gambling probe

Damn, yall just straight fabricating how the interview went. Not saying it was great, but it wasn't nearly as bad as yall are making it out to be and this:

isn't accurate

The simple answer is that guys aren’t walking around wearing names tags that say “Mob.” Guys like Billups have been around all sorts of shady people all of their lives so when someone comes with what sounds like a good deal they aren’t really certain who they are dealing with or who are behind the people that he is dealing with.

Yeah losing your job and career, being forced to choose between jail time or rat on the mob. I’m sure Chauncey is breathing a breath of fresh air today. Jesus

Prob would lay 10 to 1 you're wrong. If you look into what a Federal Indictment (especially a very high profile one) represents, you'd realize that they don't often make charges that they can't prove.

The role of the "Face Card" or recruiter is not an ancillary one in the context of their cheating operation. You can have the most effective set up but you still need the players (to cheat.)

They'll prove that he had the knowledge and that he (financially) benefited from it. The fact that he's a multimillionaire who chose to participate in a nefarious venture like this really speaks to his character.

I disagree that an indictment , naming everyone up to and including something about a ham sandwich, across multiple alleged criminal enterprises, means that DOJ expects to prove everything charged.

Fair enuf, although I think they're likely to be more buttoned up RE the charges against the most high profile individual indicted.

Also, FWIW I'd be much more likely to be in the "innocent til proven guilty" camp, had I not heard of (Billups) presence/involvement in a suspicious game that Berkey played in.

I consider this as a blunderbuss attack on Poker generally, hence the crap about magic tables that read hole cards, how a "shufflemaster" can be programmed to stack a deck to deal specific hands (something known for 20+ years btw.), earpieces used to rapidly convey information to live players ingame, and the alleged unusual cooperation among pretty diverse criminal elements in a common enterprise.

Make no mistake, a definite target is Poker, as a game.

Makes for a splashy photo op/press conference. The irony is that the POTUS is a former casino operator from New Jersey.

(I haven't seen any reporting on whether this matter includes any RICO charges, generally speaking poker is a matter of state laws and regulation .... aside from federal money laundering matters.

Curious whether this is a RICO matter, some commentators, like Michael Franceze (sp) minimize the threat to the mob defendants ?)

Totally rediculous.
The mob wants money owed sure. They aren't going to extort him for life , especially someone so famous it would draw unwanted attention if they did something to him

His life is ruined. He's way worse of today than he was 2 days ago.

No. The attack is on the mob and NBA players. That's the big story. It's not an attack on poker. Poker is just the vehicle they were using to cheat.

The far bigger story than poker is fixing NBA games/leaking inside info about them.

If this didn't involve a bunch of Mafia guys an NBA players it would just be another court case you never hear about.

Interesting theory...any thoughts RE who shot JFK?

ya it can't really be anyone else. but I think ryans wrong that they will be arrested. if they were not arrested already they were probably rats and cooperating especially pierce

Yeah, he'll probably have to spend the rest of his life traveling Europe, playing golf, and collecting his hefty NBA retirement check.

"An NBA retirement check, or pension, varies significantly based on years of service, with a maximum annual payout of approximately $195,000 for players with 10 or more seasons."

Lmao yea once he's out of jail.

He was making millions a year as an NBA coach so he loses that but at least gets his 195k.

Great upgrade!

I would argue that (the Feds involvement in this case) helps poker. Who else is gonna police private games (where the risk of being cheated goes up exponentially?)

Anytime cheating is uncovered it can help the game flourish. People aren't gonna quit playing in private games unless they think they're all dirty.

Raising awareness, both as to the presence of cheaters and (more importantly) to the methods used to cheat, make it much more difficult for cheaters to operate.

I acknowledge that the negative PR implications will prevent some new players from entering the pool but overall, this is not a net negative imo.

These games are probably 100x the stakes most people play. Nobody is policing typical private games. Overall if anything is a net negative. Cheating will still be rampant but lots of losing players won't play these games anymore.

I'm actually amazed at how little people pay attention to basic game protection. Just things like the dealer not putting the burn card back on top of the deck after an exposed card,dealers rolling the deck etc. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen someone else say something to the dealer about these things in almost 20 years of playing poker.

These same people aren't gonna be aware of rigged shufflers, x ray machines etc.

The Smart Money...

So the fact that this situation is being displayed prominently across all media outlets will have no effect (on said individual's awareness?)

Agree if we assume they reside in a cave (without internet or NYT delivery.)

Yes this is 100% bad for poker and should be 10000% worse for organized sports.

This runs so much deeper than these 4(?) players and I would assume it has its grubby little fingers in other leagues.

Hopefully this brings regulated poker to places it’s not and the players out there ****ing around face death(from the mob) or serious jail time.

Let me (against my better judgement lol) try to illustrate the point I'm trying to make.

Let's say I own a small business, say a candy store. One day I discover that a trusted cashier has been stealing money...Let's say he/she would not input some of the cash sales (really dating myself here) at the point of sale.

My question is do I benefit from this knowledge or not? Going forward (all else held equal) am I more or less likely to operate a profitable business after acquiring this knowledge?

Should I just throw my hands up and resign myself to the fact that everyone steals, or do I take measures to fortify loss prevention accordingly?

lol what??

For starters put down the bong pipe lol.