Former NBA champion point guard and Portland Trailblazers head coach Chauncey Billups has been caught in a massive gambling scandal that may rock professional sports and the gambling industry. Billups, whose involvement in an illegal poker ring allegedly run by the mafia has raised many questions, especially as he was once one of the most respected veterans in the NBA.
During his podcast, Fox Sports analyst Colin Cowherd sounded off on the massive gambling scandal, saying that Billups, a Hall of Famer, might get thrown off the Hall of Fame, and even likening his situation to disgraced MLB legend Pete Rose, who himself was caught up in a gambling scandal.
“I mean, that is the NBA’s version of Pete Rose. You have an you have an NBA head coach tipping off a gambler that they’re going that he’s going to sit players so that they should bet the under. Like that, I mean, he’s in the Hall of Fame, Colin. Like, can he get thrown out of the Hall of Fame?” Cowherd pointed out. (2:49)
Billups had been involved with illegal poker and not sports betting, so Cowherd noted that he would not likely lose his Hall of Fame status. However, he added that if it were gambling related to sports betting, as Pete Rose did during his time, he might not just lose his Hall of Fame status, but be banned from basketball altogether.
“it’s proven that Chauncey Billups as an NBA head coach was proven to letting gamblers know what he was going to do with his players for the purposes of betting unders on props, he’ll never be allowed around basketball ever again. And it’s a it would be a startling fall from grace for one of the guys with like a truly immaculate reputation within the game,” he added.
Chauncey Billups Worked Together With Infamous Crime Families in Poker Scheme
The FBI has been investigating illegal poker games for a while now, led by ederal attorney Joseph Nocella. He revealed that three of the biggest mafia crime families, the Bonanno, the Gambino and the Genovese crime families, were working together and organizing illegal home games in several locations across the US.
The families used celebrities such as Chauncey Billups to help lure players, with the mafia making tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in these illegal poker games. These games were allegedly rigged, as they featured X-ray-equipped poker tables, rigged card shufflers, marked cards and the use of sensor-equipped contact lenses and glasses that players wore at the table.
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