Sports gambling and fixed card games bring Federal indictments (Merged) | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Sports gambling and fixed card games bring Federal indictments (Merged)

MexicoHusky said:
I didnt realize the Ohtani story was being swept under the rug. I dont receive as much US news here in MX. So nuances like that are not as apparent. Is it being swept under the rug by this gambling thing? If yes, that makes sense. The gambling story has more potential. More potential for non-sports interest. Especially if high ranking gov officials are making statements about it.

As far as the Ohtani story is concerned, I am both blown-away an unmoved. It feels unreal to me. Almost as if he's playing a different sport than anyone else in baseball history. And thus you can't even compare what he's doing with anyone else. He's the best and the worse and the only player ever in this new sport that no one else plays. So when I say I'm un-moved by it... what I mean is, imagine if your crazy friend made up some new sport and said, "check this out. I just made up this new sport. And I'm the best who's ever played it. Are you impressed?" Obviously you would not be. Of course, Ohtani is playing an established sport. Maybe the most established. It's very unreal. It's like one of the sports video games where you can "create your own player". And you just make up some dude who's the fastest, strongest, best-est in every way.
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Yeah, the underground poker rings I can care less about -so they bilked few millionaires out of thousands of dollars - it’s not right, but don’t really care —the bigger story is these guys pulling themselves out of games when there’s under player prop bets involved.
 
Askgreek said:
Live udpates from the NYPost.

You have to admit this is kind of brilliant scheme by the mob. Probably has been going on for many years, but the numbers and losses have piled up and has finally caught up with them .

'Fish' to 'face cards': Read the mobbed-up lingo used in rigged NBA poker game scheme​

A rigged poker game scheme that netted tens of millions in illegal profits used mobbed-up lingo including "fish" and "face cards" to refer to victims and the NBA players who acted as bait, Brooklyn US Attorney Joseph Nocella said.

"The scheme involved victims knowns as 'fish' who were often lured to participate in these rigged games by the chance to play alongside former professional athletes who were known as 'face cards,'" Nocella explained.

The face cards who were regularly enlisted to trick people into joining the rigged games included former NBA player and current Trail Blazers coach Chancey Billups and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones, the prosecutor said.

"What the victims, the fish, didn’t know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealers to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scheme," Nocella said.
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This is a common concern for anyone considering playing poker in any "home game" for reasonable amounts of money. It's why I only play in Casinos, because while home games have notoriously "bigger fish" and "whales" that you can extract large sums of money from through legally-played poker, even the non-mob games can lean towards the shady side with typical card-marking schemes, etc. Plus they tend to charge very high amounts of rake to play in these games. Plus there's often minimal security, risks for violence with weapons, etc.

At my age, I just can't be bothered with these potential risks.

Pretty scummy that NBA players would bring in their "fishy" colleagues to intentionally swindle them of what I'd expect we'll find out are millions of dollars.
 
Illegal gambling is as old as gambling itself but we should wait for all the facts to come out before crucifying the accused.
 
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imno1 said:
Illegal gambling is as old as gambling itself but we should wait for all the facts to come out before crucifying the accused.
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I think Chauncey Billups can handle a little heat from the Boneyard even if he is innocent.
 
Waquoit said:
Oh no, retired guys playing poker with the Mob! Oooooh! Meanwhile it's legal for college kids to bet their NIL money as of now and the NCAA is good with it.
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Not sure what you expect the NCAA to do, the courts rule against them on everything.
 
TheHorde said:
And referees. The player prop bets open the door to so much sketchy behavior with over/unders. It’s naive to think refs and even coaches couldn’t get in over their heads where they owe someone something. Even if a coach has money they can “afford to lose” doesn’t mean their spouse would be happy about knowing about it if it’s too big to hide. The alternative is giving shady people information or favors instead.
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Exactly. And for the players who aren’t on a clear path to bank enough money for the rest of their lives it’s gotta be tempting them every day to get in on the take.
 
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superjohn said:
Not sure what you expect the NCAA to do, the courts rule against them on everything.
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Maybe not surrender in advance? But let's be serious, this is just so they can start collecting an "integrity fee" like the NBA does.
 
Waquoit said:
Maybe not surrender in advance? But let's be serious, this is just so they can start collecting an "integrity fee" like the NBA does.
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Instead get sued over and over, pay a bunch of money and lose?
 
Not a big Rozier fan! Not sure if I would bet against Hornets winning or for if he took himself out of a game
 
I guess there was a good reason that betting on games was limited to two cities and supposedly in person. It was only a matter of time. And using Billups aka Mr Big Shot as the face to entice big money players is more than interesting. Rozier is linked to so many players it really does damage to the NBA brand. This keeps happening and something is going to need to change.

And it more than likely happening before but I doubt the FBI could use algorithms on figuring out betting trends from illegal bookies.
 
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What I don't understand is why Rozier did it. From my understanding they're saying he didn't owe gambling debts. The money is peanuts for him unless he somehow managed to blow his fortune.

 
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MexicoHusky said:
I didnt realize the Ohtani story was being swept under the rug. I dont receive as much US news here in MX. So nuances like that are not as apparent. Is it being swept under the rug by this gambling thing? If yes, that makes sense. The gambling story has more potential. More potential for non-sports interest. Especially if high ranking gov officials are making statements about it.

As far as the Ohtani story is concerned, I am both blown-away an unmoved. It feels unreal to me. Almost as if he's playing a different sport than anyone else in baseball history. And thus you can't even compare what he's doing with anyone else. He's the best and the worse and the only player ever in this new sport that no one else plays. So when I say I'm un-moved by it... what I mean is, imagine if your crazy friend made up some new sport and said, "check this out. I just made up this new sport. And I'm the best who's ever played it. Are you impressed?" Obviously you would not be. Of course, Ohtani is playing an established sport. Maybe the most established. It's very unreal. It's like one of the sports video games where you can "create your own player". And you just make up some dude who's the fastest, strongest, best-est in every way.
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My relatively uninformed view is Ohtani's "interpreter" racked up millions of dollars in gambling debts, then paid it out of Ohtani's bank accounts.

Why an interpreter would be gambling that amount of money is questionable in the first place. Why an interpreter would have unknown access to Ohtani's bank accounts and could transfer millions, is the big question. He was not his assistant or business manager.

At first, Ohtani said he was just helping out a friend. He immediately pivoted and said he knew nothing about the missing money. Common sense says the interpreter was placing bets for Ohtani.

The case went under some kangaroo court review and was basically dismissed. And again, common sense would say there was billions of dollars in revenue and reputation at risk if they pushed on this.....so they made it go away.
 
Deepster said:
My relatively uninformed view is Ohtani's "interpreter" racked up millions of dollars in gambling debts, then paid it out of Ohtani's bank accounts.

Why an interpreter would be gambling that amount of money is questionable in the first place. Why an interpreter would have unknown access to Ohtani's bank accounts and could transfer millions, is the big question. He was not his assistant or business manager.

At first, Ohtani said he was just helping out a friend. He immediately pivoted and said he knew nothing about the missing money. Common sense says the interpreter was placing bets for Ohtani.

The case went under some kangaroo court review and was basically dismissed. And again, common sense would say there was billions of dollars in revenue and reputation at risk if they pushed on this.....so they made it go away.
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Just like the NBA was able to mostly sweep the ref scandal under the rug when they were up for a new TV contract. It was certainly bigger than just Donaghy, they had rigged finals games.
 
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