Feds Indict Billups, Rozier in Mafia Poker Scheme

Federal prosecutors unsealed a sprawling indictment in "Operation Royal Flush" charging more than 30 people — including Portland coach Chauncey Billups, Miami guard Terry Rozier and former player Damon Jones — in a multistate, Mafia-backed poker and betting conspiracy. Authorities say the scheme, running since about 2019 and nicknamed the "Lexington Avenue Game," used casino-grade cheating technology — X‑ray poker tables, tampered shuffling machines, hidden cameras in chip trays and special contact lenses or glasses to read premarked cards — to relay hands to a "quarterback" and rig high‑stakes underground games. U.S. officials say wealthy victims lost at least $7 million in poker games, with individual losses up to $1.8 million, and that winners shared proceeds while organizers laundered money through shell companies. Prosecutors allege New York Mafia families including Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese and Genovese backed the operation and took a cut, and investigators flagged a related basketball‑betting plot. The NBA has placed implicated personnel on leave while federal authorities and the league review the indictments, and some defendants have denied wrongdoing through counsel.