Congress had questions in November for the National Basketball Association following gambling-related indictments secured by the Justice Department. And a few Democratic congressmen believe that these scandals should make their legislation a slam dunk.
Scandals and indictments
A DOJ investigation netted 31 defendants, many in New York, for allegedly rigging illegal poker games. Those charged in October included several of the usual suspects, including alleged members of organized crime families. The operation also caught up several past and present members of the NBA. Among them was Portland Trail Blazers’ head coach Chauncey Billups, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame from his 1997-2014 NBA playing career.
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“Well-known former NBA players and former professional athletes, acted as ‘Face Cards’ to lure unsuspecting victims to high-stakes poker games, where they were then at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contacts lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big,” the DOJ alleged in a news release. “Today’s indictment and arrests sound the final buzzer for these cheaters.”
Separately in October, the DOJ also charged current and former NBA players, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, in an alleged scheme to, at the very least, fix bets, and possibly throw games.