GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

There are troubling questions tonight for the NBA about gambling after the FBI arrested one of its players and a Hall of Fame head coach.

They are among dozens of people charged today in a federal investigation alleging illegal sports betting and rigged poker games organized by the mafia.

Combined, the two schemes involved millions of dollars.

And the details around these cases are causing some to question the integrity of the NBA itself and its connections to the legalized gambling industry that exploded in popularity.

William Brangham has more.

So, William, how sprawling is this investigation?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Geoff, it is quite vast.

More than 30 people have been arrested across 11 states.

In two different indictments, the suspects are charged with crimes including money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling.

U.S.

attorney Joseph Nocella of the Eastern District in New York detailed today how star players like the Miami Heat's Terry Rozier used inside information about players for betting purposes.

JOSEPH NOCELLA, U.S.

Attorney For Eastern District of New York: These defendants perpetrated a screen -- a scheme to defraud by betting on inside nonpublic information about NBA athletes and teams.

The nonpublic information included when specific players would be sitting out future games or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The investigation also accuses several defendants of running rigged poker games, where victims were lured into playing with former NBA stars.

Joining me now to break this all down is Mike Vorkunov.

He covers professional basketball for "The Athletic."

Mike, thank you so much for being here.

Such a sprawling indictment, two different indictments, two different schemes alleged here.

Let's talk about that first one, which is the allegation that players were somehow using inside information to help win bets.

Explain the allegation there.

MIKE VORKUNOV, "The Athletic": Yes.

It's an interesting one and probably one of the things that the NBA cares about most is that Terry Rozier, who has been charged in the indictment and arrested today in Orlando, he was accused of telling bettors, telling one bettor in particular, that he would come out of a 2023 game early with an apparent injury, so that the bettor could then use that information to make wagers on unders on his prop bets, and then also forward that information to other bettors, so they could make money off of him.

So it was essentially manipulating his own performance so that others could win money wagering on him.

And it's very much like what we saw with Jontay Porter a few years ago, when he was arrested, charged and pled guilty to wire fraud and also banned from the NBA.

And there's another element here that doesn't involve players directly.

Also, in the indictment, there is the story of how one person working for the Blazers let one of the other co-defendants know that they would be benching a few of the players since they were tanking and bets were made on that.

And Damon Jones, a former NBA player who served as kind of like an unofficial assistant coach for the Lakers for the past few years, used his insider role to gain knowledge about the injury situation of players and whether they'd be playing or not to tip off bettors.

In January 2024, he found out that one of the top Lakers players was hurt and that he either might play limited minutes or have his performance affected.

And he sold that information to one of these bettors, another co-defendant in these charges brought Thursday, who then placed a $100,000 bet on the Lakers to lose.

Ultimately, the Lakers actually won.

And so the bet didn't lead to anything, but that's just what some of these -- that's just what some of the people indicted today, how they used their insider information and their roles to help sports gamblers try to make money off the NBA.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The second alleged scheme here is about these rigged poker games, where high rollers would be lured into playing with NBA players, thinking they'd be playing a regular poker game, but the games were not on the up-and-up.

Explain that allegation.

MIKE VORKUNOV: That one is -- that one has more of like a Hollywood bent to it, I would say.

The government alleges that there were rigged poker games across the country, from Miami to New York to the Hamptons, that used former players, professional athletes.

Again, Damon Jones was one of them.

Chauncey Billups, the Hall of Fame basketball player, and currently the Blazers' head coach, although he was just put on leave by NBA today, were two of the people who were helping lure potential future victims into these rigged poker games.

And then the rigged poker games were run in cooperation with Italian crime families out of New York.

And the feds said that there were four Italian crime families that worked with them to put these games on, took a cut of the winnings, offered protection, threatened people who didn't pay.

And so that was something that was separate from the sports gambling investigation, the charges out of it, but also these two investigations had common threads.

Three people were charged in both indictments.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And there were some pretty unusual high-tech techniques that were being deployed allegedly in these poker games.

MIKE VORKUNOV: Yes, frankly, I didn't know this was possible, but they were using things like X-ray tables where you could see cards, electric poker chips that would help you be able to cheat and rig-shuffling decks.

So they had a number of high-tech things on their side to help them rig these poker games.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Broader question for you.

There are some critics who allege this is just what happens when you legalize sports betting and get the major leagues involved with these betting companies.

This is the inevitable outcome.

Are you hearing a lot of that concern today?

MIKE VORKUNOV: I think certainly so.

The NBA's approach has been that they prefer legalized gambling to illegal gambling because they think it's easier to catch people.

And their claim is this is akin to insider trading, which is the language that FBI Director Kash Patel used too in catching these folks.

But I think the problem with that is that's all after the fact, Right It means that the malfeasance has already occurred and you're catching them after the things that the NBA is trying to guard against from happening has already happened.

And now there are just more opportunities to bet.

It's obviously so much more in our faces.

Everyone sees the betting ads running nonstop during all kinds of sporting games, let alone everywhere else in their lives.

And athletes see that too.

Their friends see it.

Their families see it.

Their associates see it.

And so now betting is just so much more readily accessible.

And I think it's clear that it's creating more issues.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right.

That is Mike Vorkunov of "The Athletic."

Thank you so much for joining us.

MIKE VORKUNOV: Happy to do it.

Thank you for having me.