FBI indictments link New York mobsters, professional athletes in two cheating schemes

If you thought the traditional Mob was dead, think again.

The FBI on Thursday announced sweeping indictments implicating members of four of the five New York crime families in illegal gambling schemes. Twelve members or associates of the Gambino, Bonanno, Genovese and Lucchese crime families were among those indicted, along with former professional basketball players and others.

New York Mafia members allegedly were involved in operating rigged weekly illegal poker games, including games in Las Vegas.

According to the FBI, the games were operated with the “express permission and approval of” Mafia members and associates. In exchange for a portion of the proceeds, the Mafia members provided support and protection for the games and collected debts using “threats and intimidation.”

The poker games were rigged using high-tech devices. According to the indictment:

“The members of the cheating teams … used card-shuffling machines that were purportedly randomly shuffling the playing cards to ensure fairness. However, the rigged shuffling machines were secretly altered to use concealed technology to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relay that information via interstate wires to an off-site operator. The operator then communicated that information by cellular phone to a member of the cheating team seated at the rigged game poker table, referred to as the ‘Quarterback.’”

That person at the table used “secret signaling” to share the information with the other members of the cheating teams playing in the rigged games. The cheating teams used the information from the Quarterback to defraud the victims, who believed they were playing in straight games.”

Other cheating methods listed in one of the indictments include an X-ray poker table, “electronic poker chip trays,” “card analyzers that utilized technology onto decoy cellular telephones,” and marked cards detectable by “specially designed contact lenses or sunglasses.” The use of cutting-edge technology to fleece victims sets this case apart from other recent gambling busts and scams.

Wealthy victims were invited to participate in the games, often by former professional basketball players. According to the indictment, Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player Damon Jones, who played for 10 different NBA teams, were two of those players.

Other defendants in the case laundered money for the ring by using shell companies, third parties and cryptocurrency.

Although most of the rigged games occurred in New York, some were held in Las Vegas and Miami. Billups was involved with the Las Vegas games in 2019.

Illegal gambling is nothing new for the Mob. This is not even the first time this year that a Mafia gambling ring has made the news. However, the unfair nature of these poker games is unusual. Having a reputation for cheating the clientele makes for bad business. But this case combines two of the Mob’s favorite schemes: illegal gambling and scams.

The New York Post released details about some of the charged mobsters. One of the 12 identified in the indictment is Angelo Ruggiero Jr., son of Angelo “Quack Quack” Ruggiero, who was the late John Gotti’s close friend and crew member. Gambino mobster Lee Fama is known as a poker high roller in Las Vegas. Matthew Daddino, a made man in the Genovese crime family, had only recently “earned his button.”

Although the rigged poker scheme is big news on its own, another indictment went out today that targeted insider information and NBA game-fixing.

Three defendants in the rigged poker case were also named in the NBA gambling indictment: Eric Earnest, Shane Hennen and Damon Jones. Hennen, a Las Vegas gambler, was arrested in January for masterminding a sports-fixing scandal in connection with Jontay Porter, a former Toronto Raptors forward. Jones is accused of selling insider information to bettors, which included unreported news about an injured Lebron James in February 2023.

However, the game-fixing indictment does not list any Mafia members or associates among the defendants. There may be a Mob connection, but it is not apparent at this time.

Director Patel concluded the press conference this morning with a warning to other would-be gambling offenders. “If you’re participating in the legal gambling industry, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” he said. “If you’re participating in illegal conduct, you’ve got everything to worry about. And this case shows it.”