Detroit Pistons Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups has been arrested as part of a federal gambling probe.
Billups is among more than 30 people arrested in two criminal cases alleging sprawling separate schemes to rake in millions by rigging sports bets and poker games involving Mafia families, federal authorities said.
Billups was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and the Hamptons that were backed by La Cosa Nostra crime families.
The NBA said it is cooperating with authorities.
The league has suspended Billups from his job as the head coach of the Portland trail Blazers. Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year.
The FBI alleges the poker scheme cheated at least $7 million out of unsuspecting gamblers who were lured into rigged games with the chance to compete against former professional basketball players like Billups. The games were rigged using sophisticated cheating technology, such as altered card-shuffling machines, hidden cameras in poker chip trays, special sunglasses and even X-ray equipment built into the table to read the cards of unsuspecting players.
Once the targeted victims — known as “fish” — lost, the mafia used extortion and violence to make sure they paid their gambling debts.
The rigged poker scheme often made use of preexisting illegal poker games run by New York crime families that required them to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonnano families, according to court papers.
Members of those families, in turn, also helped commit violent acts, including assault, extortion and robbery, to ensure repayment of debts and the continued success of the operation, officials said in court documents.
