Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups is among a group of people charged in a separate illegal poker scheme with alleged ties to the Mafia, officials said.

Federal prosecutor Joseph Nocella Jr. told reporters the poker games were a “confidence scheme” in which players were “rigged from the start”, using devices to shuffle cards and X-ray players’ hands. The scheme also allegedly involved professional basketball players.

The games started in 2019 and were played in the Hamptons, Manhattan, Las Vegas and Miami, prosecutors said. They said the illegal operation netted its organisers “millions of dollars in profits” with an estimated $7 million in proceeds from gambling alone. The two-year investigation was led by the NYPD and FBI, Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters.

If

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