Professional poker player Matt Berkey wasn’t surprised by the illegal gambling allegations against Chauncey Billups.
In a 2023 clip that has gone viral after the bombshell federal gambling scandal was revealed on Thursday, Berkey detailed what he described as a rigged poker game he got word of that allegedly involved the Trail Blazers head coach, who was one of the 30-plus people arrested in a pair of sweeping busts.
“Cheating is mmmkay? There are a lot of stories about it,” Berkey said on his “Only Friends Podcast” in a resurfaced clip from August 2023. “There was one that cropped up, this must’ve been like five years ago, 2019-ish I think … There was this game, it started in LA then it came to Vegas for a few days. And it was all built around Chauncey Billups.
“And I had heard about the game and the person who told me about it was like, ‘Look, I know the game runners, I’m telling you 100 percent this game is on the up and up.’ And I was like, ‘Well, I know a lot of the people that are involved and I’m telling you 100 percent that it is not on the up and up,’” he continued.
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Berkey said he decided against participating in the poker games, but heard from some fellow players that there was something fishy going on with them.
“I had some friends that went and played it both in LA and Vegas, and it obviously was, like, for sure, cheating,” Berkey alleged.
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The FBI has arrested 31 people involved in a rigged poker game ring backed by the New York City organized crime families.
- Ernest Aiello — reputed Bonanno mobster
- Nelson “Spanish G” Alvarez
- Louis “Lou Ap” Apicella
- Ammar “Flapper Poker” Awawdeh
- Saul Becher — professional poker player
- Chauncey Billups — Portland Trail Blazers coach, NBA Hall of Famer and 2004 NBA champion
- Matthew “The Wrestler” Daddino
- Eric “Spooky” Earnest
- Lee Fama — professional poker player
- John Gallo
- Marco Garzon
- Thomas “Tommy Juice” Gelardo — reputed Lucchese mobster charged in 2013 for beating porn star girlfriend
- Jamie Gilet
- Tony “Black Tony” Goodson
- Kenny Han
- Shane “Sugar” Henne
- Osman “Albanian Bruce” Hoti
- Horatio Hu
- Zhen “Scruli” Hu
- Damon “Dee Jones” Jones — NBA player from 1998 to 2009
- Joseph Lanni
- John “John South” Mazzola
- Curtis Meeks
- Nicholas Minucci
- Michael Renzulli
- Anthony Ruggiero Jr.
- Anthony “Doc” Shnayderman
- Robert “Black Rob” Stroud
- Seth Trustman
- Sophia “Pookie” Wei
- Julius Ziliani
Berkey’s story lines up with the allegations the FBI brought up against Billups, the 2024 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, on Thursday, accusing him of participating in fixed high-stakes card games in conjunction with four New York crime families.
Billups was arrested in Oregon on Thursday morning, the night after coaching Portland’s season opener.
Specifically, Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones were accused of acting as “face cards” to attract high rollers to big-money poker games that were fixed using sophisticated tech, including rigged card shufflers and special glasses and contact lenses, according to an indictment by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Heat guard Terry Rozier was also arrested Thursday, in which he is alleged to have participated in an illegal sports betting scheme by using insider NBA knowledge.
Rozier and Billups were placed on “immediate leave” by the NBA.
“We will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities,” the NBA said in a statement. “We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
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