by
John Alite
John Alite, a former enforcer for New York's Gambino crime family, speculates that the mob could have blackmailed ex-Detroit Pistons star Chauncey Billups into cooperating with them in rigged poker games that fleeced unsuspecting players. He suggested Billups could be a victim in the scheme.
He says the New York mob families, which federal authorities have accused of running rigged poker games using electronic devices, could have had something on Billups and told him, “Do this or else,” according to a story in the New York Post.
“For them to do this, they probably knew somebody and asked him for a favor… he’s got a wife he’s cheating on, they caught him sniffing coke, or whatever, they got him somehow,” Alite speculated. There is no public information to suggest these theories are true, and they appear to be based solely on his experience as a Gambino associate.
A federal indictment out of Brooklyn alleges that Billups, 49, was a “Face Card,” meaning he was allegedly used as a big-name player in rigged poker games to make them appear more legitimate to unsuspecting wealthy gamblers, who had no idea the games were rigged. It also alleges that Billups financially benefited from the games.
Billups, who has been the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers since 2021, is one of 31 people named in the federal indictment involving rigged card games. He is on leave since the indictment was unsealed last Thursday. Former NBA player Damon Jones is also accused of participating in the rigged games.
The 22-page indictment said Billups was involved in rigged Las Vegas games in 2019 that resulted in players being defrauded of more than $50,000.
Chris Heywood, Billups’s attorney, told ESPN in a statement:
“Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others. To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall of Fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game. Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to.”
A second gambling indictment on Thursday listed six defendants, alleging they provided inside information to NBA games to give gamblers an inside track. Billups is not named, but CBS Sports reported that Billups appeared to be a person in the indictment named only as "Co-Conspirator 8," who supplied information about the Blazers resting key players ahead of a March 24, 2023, contest.
Alite, 63, became a government witness and testified in 2008 against the Gambino crime family. He pleaded guilty to racketeering, which included two murders. He was sentenced to 10 years but served only a fraction of that before being released early for his cooperation. In March 2025, he was appointed as a councilman in Englishtown, N.J.
Alite told the New York Post he’s doubtful Billups got involved in the rigged poker games for the money, explaining that the basketball Hall of Famer was already wealthy.
“It’s kind of ridiculous to think that he’s there just to make $50,000. It just doesn’t make a fucking little bit of sense.”
Matt Berkey, a well-known professional poker player, said in a 2023 podcast that he heard Billups was involved in rigged high-stakes poker games around 2019 — first in Los Angeles, then in Las Vegas.
Berkey said on the Only Friends Podcast that he had been invited to the game but heard from close friends that it was not on the up-and-up.
“There are a lot of stories about it. There’s one that cropped up — this must have been like five years ago, 2019-ish — where there was this game. It started in L.A. and then it came to Vegas for a few days, and it was all built around Chauncey Billups.”
“And I 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% 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% that it is not on the up-and-up.’”
