Investigators expected to seek documents, including cell phones and phone records, from at least 10 Lakers employees
Kyle Schnitzer: Ex-NBA player Damon Jones arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court to be arraigned on those two October gambling indictments. Doesn’t take questions. x.com | Nov. 6, 2025
Former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he profited from rigged poker games and provided sports bettors with nonpublic information about injuries to stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis. ESPN | Nov. 6, 2025
Shams Charania: A United States Congressional committee is meeting with NBA officials Wednesday in Washington, D.C., in wake of the indictments of Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones, sources tell ESPN. The meeting is considered a briefing for members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and will include conversations about the league’s partnerships with sportsbooks and measures to prevent illegal use of non-public information, sources said. x.com | Nov. 5, 2025
NBC News reviewed more than 150 pages of court documents from Jones, including financial forms, spanning more than a decade that show persistent financial problems for the ex-athlete. In addition to the eviction proceedings, Jones listed his 2016 NBA championship ring as collateral for a personal loan and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. NBC | Nov. 1, 2025
Pablo Torre: “Last week, we here at Pablo Finds Out asked Clippers PR about Ty Lue’s attendance at the allegedly rigged poker game in Las Vegas, April 2019—the same one involving Chauncey Billups that was mentioned in the federal indictment.” “The Clippers did not respond.” “But going back to that same game in question, my anonymous poker-playing source did eventually hear that something was up.” “A year later, my friend came back to me and said, ‘For sure, that game was cheated.’ And then other people around Vegas had heard about it, too.” “So there was word going around—on the streets—that the game had allegedly been rigged, especially because there were some shady people involved in running the operation.” YouTube | Oct. 30, 2025
“Jones had previously been hired by Lue as part of his coaching staff in Cleveland and has called Lue his best friend. So yes—what you’re looking at here is one hell of a best friend triangle: Lue, Jones, and Billups—all bonded by basketball and, apparently, by poker.” “In fact, in June 2024, Ty Lue and Damon Jones were spotted sitting together on the rail—the poker equivalent of courtside—watching another friend of theirs compete at the World Series of Poker, as seen in the official broadcast of that event.” YouTube | Oct. 30, 2025
“According to multiple sources with direct knowledge of that April 2019 game in Vegas that we’ve been discussing—the same one where Billups was allegedly profiting off of an extremely suspicious hand and a rigged shuffling machine—another ‘face card’ in attendance was current Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue.” “At the time, Lue was an assistant coach for the Clippers. Now, sources say that Lue did not play at the same table as Chauncey Billups—the man he recently called his best friend, and the same man whom Lue would go on to hire as a Clippers assistant in 2020, once he landed the head coaching job.” “But here’s the open secret around the NBA: Ty Lue lives in Vegas during the offseason. He also loves poker. He’s often seen at what many insiders consider the nexus of the NBA poker world—the Aria High Limit Bar—often alongside another retired NBA player: Damon Jones.” YouTube | Oct. 30, 2025
Last week, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were arrested as part of two FBI investigations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the mafia. Green’s response: “There’s bad apples everywhere.” “You go to any sport, any organization, anything, there’s bad apples everywhere,” Green said. “But let’s not try to act like Adam Silver has just built this league that does not care about people gambling. And because there’s a Fanatics sportsbook, a DraftKings, a FanDuel sponsorship, that Adam just doesn’t care about players gambling. Like, stop the bulls—. Cut it out. We watch these gambling videos every year. They’re on top of this stuff.” New York Times | Oct. 28, 2025
