Professional poker player Matt Berkey wasn\u2019t surprised by the illegal gambling allegations against Chauncey Billups.<\/b>
\nProfessional poker player Matt Berkey wasn\u2019t surprised by the illegal gambling allegations against Chauncey Billups.
In a 2023 clip that has gone viral after the bombshell federal gambling scandal was revealed on Thursday, Berkey detailed what he described as a rigged poker game he got word of that allegedly involved the Trail Blazers head coach, who was one of the 30-plus people arrested in a pair of sweeping busts.
\u201cCheating is mmmkay? There are a lot of stories about it,\u201d Berkey said on his \u201cOnly Friends Podcast\u201d in a resurfaced clip from August 2023. \u201cThere was one that cropped up, this must\u2019ve been like five years ago, 2019-ish I think \u2026 There was this game, it started in LA then it came to Vegas for a few days. And it was all built around Chauncey Billups.
\u201cAnd I had heard about the game and the person who told me about it was like, \u2018Look, I know the game runners, I\u2019m telling you 100 percent this game is on the up and up.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Well, I know a lot of the people that are involved and I\u2019m telling you 100 percent that it is not on the up and up,\u2019\u201d he continued.
Berkey said he decided against participating in the poker games, but heard from some fellow players that there was something fishy going on with them.
\u201cI had some friends that went and played it both in LA and Vegas, and it obviously was, like, for sure, cheating,\u201d Berkey alleged.
Berkey\u2019s story lines up with the allegations the FBI brought up against Billups, the 2024 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, on Thursday, accusing him of participating in fixed high-stakes card games in conjunction with four New York crime families.
Billups was arrested in Oregon on Thursday morning, the night after coaching Portland\u2019s season opener.
Specifically, Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones were accused of acting as \u201cface cards\u201d to attract high rollers to big-money poker games that were fixed using sophisticated tech, including rigged card shufflers and special glasses and contact lenses, according to an indictment by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Heat guard Terry Rozier was also arrested Thursday, in which he is alleged to have participated in an illegal sports betting scheme by using insider NBA knowledge.
Rozier and Billups were placed on \u201cimmediate leave\u201d by the NBA.
\u201cWe will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities,\u201d the NBA said in a statement. \u201cWe take these allegations with the utmost seriousness and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n