David Cohn (guest / Crane & Company)

My message to the defendants who have been rounded up today is this.

Your winning streak has ended.

Your luck has run out.

Violating the law is a losing proposition and you can bet on that.

Yeah, well, I would...

I wish we were talking about the World Series starting tonight, Ben, but it's not every day you get a gambling sting operation in the NBA.

So FBI Director Kash Patel came out yesterday and stated that this was a nationwide takedown across 11 states, resulting in 30 arrests.

And what I really want people to understand here is these are two separate indictments, but there are three overlapping defendants, so they are related cases.

Let's start with the first indictment,

This is your more typical on-court game fixing.

This is where Miami Heat shooting guard Terry Rozier's name is coming into play.

It's alleged that he was involved in some of that game fixing, notifying gamblers when he would play, when certain players would not play, or even more specifically, removing himself possibly from games after only nine minutes so that his prop bet point total under would hit.

things like that.

And that's going to be very problematic, Ben, moving forward for all sports leagues as legalized gambling has sort of ushered into this space.

The second indictment related, but a separate incident, this is where we get into La Cosa Nostra, Italian Mafia, pretty much every crime family name that you've ever heard in any movie or TV show.

And this is where Chauncey Billups' name and Damon Jones comes into play.

Now, if you're like me, Ben, you remember Chauncey Billups as being one of those pillars of those great Detroit Pistons teams 20 years ago, winning finals MVP.

He's now the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers and apparently was involved with these mafia families in fixing poker games.

So he would lure in

quote unquote fish high stakes rollers where he would be the quote unquote face card because people want to play poker with famous celebrities and famous athletes.