The Rigged Poker Games That Used NBA Stars and James Bond Tech to Steal Millions

How an illegal card ring deployed Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups to attract unsuspecting victims.

It was April 2019 in Las Vegas and, as always in the gambling capital of America, there was a poker game going on.

FBI Director Kash Patel leads news conference to announce arrests tied to illegal sports betting and poker game schemes, in New York City on October 23, 2025. (AFP)

Except this wasn’t an ordinary poker game. And these weren’t ordinary gamblers.

Sitting at the table that day was Chauncey Billups, a retired NBA star who would soon be hired as the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. He was there for a very important reason: to lure in unwitting wealthy patsies who thought the game was legitimate, so he and the other players could steal tens of thousands of dollars of their money.

That is just one example of what prosecutors say is a complex, far-reaching network of fixed underground poker games—often backed by organized crime groups—that stacked the decks by using cheating technology straight out of a James Bond movie. On Thursday, the government charged 31 people for their alleged involvement in the yearslong scheme that ran from the desert of Nevada to the beaches of the Hamptons, and which included Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones.

In the Vegas game, law enforcement says organizers deployed a rigged shuffling machine that they had secretly tampered with to ensure their success. They allegedly bilked their victims for at least $50,000.

Billups’ role was less high-tech: He was the bait.

Portland head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested as part of a sprawling investigation into illegal gambling and poker game schemes.

When investigators swooped in with arrests on Thursday, Billups was the biggest catch from an operation that the government says swindled $7 million and included members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese organized crime families. FBI director Kash Patel traveled to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn to trumpet the bust in a news conference that outlined one of the most dramatic scandals in the recent history of American sports.

But the 49-year-old Billups, who was placed on leave by the NBA on Thursday, is also connected to another gambling case the government had been chasing for years. That one had even more direct ties to actual basketball games.

Billups and Jones, the indictment in that case says, gave details about players being benched to some of the same people they were working with in the rigged poker games. Billups—identified in this indictment only as “Co-Conspirator 8”—allegedly told a fellow participant in the Vegas game that the Blazers intended to “tank” a 2023 game against the Chicago Bulls by resting top players. Another defendant in the poker-rigging scheme then wagered on a Portland loss before players were publicly ruled out, netting a significant profit.

By then they’d already been working seamlessly together for years, according to prosecutors. The poker games, in particular, had turned into sophisticated operations.

Prosecutors say the defendants in the poker-rigging scheme would often modify DeckMate shufflers with tech that could read the cards in the deck and relay that information to an off-site operator.

That person would pass it on via cellphone to someone at the table known as the “Quarterback” or “Driver,” who would use predetermined signals to alert the other conspirators.

They had other ways to cheat, too. They used poker-chip trays equipped with hidden cameras. There was an X-ray table that could read cards while they were face down. There were even special contact lenses that could read marked cards.

But the most effective tricks at their disposal were known as “face cards”—former professional athletes, such as Billups, who were there to attract potential victims to the game. They were then paid a portion of the winnings for participating.

Indictment papers were unveiled on Thursday during a press conference attended by FBI Director Kash Patel.

At one point during the Las Vegas game in 2019, one defendant texted that Billups should lose a hand on purpose to deflect suspicion. Players were so in awe of Billups that another defendant replied they had nothing to worry about. The victim, he said, “acted like he wanted Chauncey to have his money! He was star struck!”

After Billups played in another rigged poker game in late October 2020, according to court filings, he was wired a payment of $50,000.

At the poker table, basketball was rarely out of mind. In one September 2023 game, one of the defendants coached Jones in real time via text message, instructing him to pay particular attention to two other players who were especially adept at cheating. He compared one of them to Steph Curry and the other to LeBron James.

“Y’all know I know what I’m doing!!” Jones replied.

Jones is one of three people charged in both indictments. Another central figure in the twin scandals is Shane Hennen, who has been known to law enforcement for years.

Prosecutors say he helped supply the cheating technology and played in the rigged poker games. He acted on Billups’s tip that several top Blazers would be rested, they say, and also conspired to bet on Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter’s rigged performance in two games in January and March 2024.

Prosecutors announced that 31 people had been charged in their probe into illegal sports betting and poker game schemes.

The government charged Porter and a handful of co-conspirators in the summer of 2024—but not Hennen, prompting widespread speculation that he was cooperating with investigators. Hennen had a lengthy criminal history that included prison sentences for aggravated assault and possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it.

In January, ahead of what the government characterized in a court filing as a deadline, Hennen bought a one-way ticket to Colombia connecting through Panama. He was arrested at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas as he attempted to board the first leg of his flight, carrying multiple cellphones and just under $10,000 in cash. He told agents arresting him that he was going to Colombia for dental treatment.

At that point, the government charged Hennen over his alleged involvement in the Porter scheme. Before long, lawyers for the government and for Hennen told the federal court in Brooklyn that Hennen was negotiating with prosecutors again.

Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com and Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com