NBA OFFICIALLY CLOSES After 50+ NBA Players Getting Arrested Over Gambling Scandal!

FBI Shatters the NBA: The $\text{Tens-of-Millions}$ Corruption Scandal

On October 23, 2025, the world of basketball was hit with an “absolute earthquake”. FBI agents, in a coordinated sweep across 11 states, arrested over 30 individuals, including current and former star players and a Hall of Fame coach, for their roles in a massive criminal enterprise dubbed “Nothing But NET.” This wasn’t small-time corruption; it involved tens of millions of dollars in fraud, rigged games, and the direct involvement of four major Mafia families.

The Unsealed Indictments: Mafia, Rigged Games, and Poker

The charges, unsealed in New York, detail two interconnected criminal schemes that span multiple years:

Insider Sports Betting Ring: Exploiting non-public NBA information for calculated bets, including “spot fixing”—manipulating specific game elements like player injuries or early exits. This scheme spanned from March 2023 to March 2024 and affected games from seven teams.
Rigged High-Stakes Poker Ring: A massive operation running from as early as 2019 through 2025, generating over $7 million in direct losses and laundering an additional $20 million. This was a sophisticated trap using rigged card shufflers with hidden cameras, X-ray tables, and marked decks.

Crucially, this entire operation was backed by four major organized crime families: the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese organizations, who provided enforcement and money laundering expertise.

The Charged: Hall of Famers, Coaches, and Star Players

The FBI dragnet ensnared prominent figures, permanently tarnishing their legacies:

Individual
Current/Former Role
Key Allegations

Chauncey Billups
Portland Trailblazers Head Coach, Hall of Famer
Allegedly participated in Mafia-backed rigged poker games and provided insider tanking strategies for the Blazers during the 2023 season.

Terry Rozier
Miami Heat Guard
Allegedly shared non-public information about his own and other players’ injuries and early game exits for prop bets on seven different games. Example: Exited a 2023 game after 9 minutes, citing a foot injury, allowing “under” bets on his points to hit, netting conspirators $17,000.

Damon Jones
Former NBA Player/Coach
Allegedly involved in both schemes, selling insider injury information (including for superstars like LeBron James and Anthony Davis) and participating in the rigged poker operations.

The Porter Precedent and The Gambling Crisis

This scandal builds directly on previous integrity issues, most notably the 2024 case of former Raptors center Jontay Porter.

Coercion and Debt: Porter, who accumulated $1-2 million in gambling debts, was reportedly coerced into manipulating his own performance for “under” prop bets. In one 2024 game, he exited after just four minutes with a fake injury, allowing conspirators to profit over $750,000.
A Vulnerable System: This highlights a vulnerability among younger, lower-paid players susceptible to financial pressure and mob coercion, creating a “direct form of game manipulation” in modern basketball.

The NBA, which has forged over $1 billion in partnerships with betting companies like DraftKings and FanDuel, is now forced to confront the dark side of legalized sports betting. With stocks for major betting companies taking hits and calls for stricter federal oversight—even from Commissioner Adam Silver—the integrity of the $10 billion annual business is at risk.

The three arrested individuals face daunting charges including wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, with the possibility of decades in prison due to the organized crime connections. The entire sports landscape now faces fundamental questions: How deep does this run, and can the competition ever truly be trusted again?

What long-term consequences do you think this massive scandal will have on fan engagement and trust in the NBA?