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By Austin Taylor · Founder, Cope CompassLast updated July 8, 2026

The Betting Scandal Reaching Pros, and Your Phone

An empty professional basketball arena at dusk, rows of vacant seats and a shaft of cool light across a shadowed court, in deep teal and navy tones.

Nobody sets out to lose control. Not the person checking a parlay at a stoplight, and, if prosecutors are right, not the professional athletes now facing federal charges. The scandal unfolding in the Eastern District of New York is being covered as a sports story. For anyone in recovery, or trying to get there, it's something more useful: proof of how deep and normalized betting has become, and how the same machinery is pointed at all of us.

What Prosecutors Allege

In October 2025, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed indictments charging dozens of people across two connected investigations. One targeted rigged, high-stakes poker games. The other targeted rigged sports bets. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, more than 30 defendants were charged, including members and associates of organized crime families and figures from professional basketball.

Among the most prominent names:

  • Chauncey Billups, the Hall of Famer who was head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was charged in connection with the rigged poker operation. Prosecutors allege the games were tied to La Cosa Nostra crime families and that Billups served as a "face card" to lure victims to the table. He has pleaded not guilty.
  • Terry Rozier, the veteran NBA guard, faces a superseding indictment returned on May 28, 2026. Prosecutors allege he solicited and accepted a $100,000 bribe to tip off bettors that he planned to exit a March 2023 game early. His attorney has moved to dismiss the case and denies the allegations.
  • Malik Beasley and former teammate Edward "Ed" Davis were among six people charged in an indictment returned June 29, 2026. Prosecutors allege Beasley coordinated in advance whether he would underperform or overperform his statistical projections so associates could bet accordingly. Beasley pleaded not guilty on July 1, 2026.
  • Damon Jones, a former player and coach, became the first to plead guilty, in April 2026. He admitted to conspiracy to commit wire fraud tied to both the betting and poker schemes.
These are allegations, not verdicts. Everyone charged is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, and the courts have not resolved the pending motions.

Baseball Was Pulled In Too

This is not only a basketball story. On November 9, 2025, the same U.S. Attorney's Office unsealed an indictment charging two current Cleveland Guardians pitchers, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery, and money laundering conspiracy.

Prosecutors allege the pitchers agreed to throw specific pitches, a ball instead of a strike, for example, so that co-conspirators could cash in on prop bets tied to individual pitches. Both have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, each faces up to 20 years on the most serious counts.

The detail worth sitting with is the size of the bet. Not the game. Not even the inning. A single pitch. That's the level of granularity modern sportsbooks now offer, and it's the same feature marketed to ordinary bettors as "microbetting." We wrote about why that speed is so dangerous in our piece on microbetting addiction.

Why This Matters for Recovery

Here's the part the headlines miss. The professionals allegedly caught up in these schemes had access, information, and incentive most of us don't. But the product that surrounded them, an app in the pocket, a market for every micro-moment, an outcome available every few seconds, is the exact product on your phone right now.

That's the point. Sports betting has become so normalized that it reaches the field, the locker room, and the living room equally. Legalized sports betting has spread to dozens of states since 2018, and it's advertised during the games themselves. The line between watching and wagering has been erased on purpose.

For someone with gambling disorder, that normalization is not neutral. It's dangerous.

2.5MU.S. adults are estimated to meet the criteria for a severe gambling problem in a given year, per the National Council on Problem Gambling

Gambling disorder is a recognized medical condition. It's classified in the ICD-10 as F63.0 and in the DSM-5 as a behavioral addiction, the only one alongside substance use disorders. The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that about 2.5 million U.S. adults (roughly 1 percent) meet the criteria for a severe gambling problem in a given year, with millions more experiencing milder problems. These are people, not statistics, and most of them never intended to lose control.

What the scandal illustrates in extreme form is what clinicians see every day: the design does the work. In-play and pitch-level markets exploit intermittent reinforcement, the same unpredictable reward schedule that makes slot machines so sticky. The illusion of skill, "I know this pitcher, I've done my research," keeps a bettor chasing losses long after the math has turned. We break this mechanism down in why sports betting is more addictive than you think.

If any of that sounds familiar, it doesn't mean you're weak. It means the product was built to do exactly this.

Congress Is Paying Attention. You Don't Have to Wait.

The scale of these cases has reached Washington. The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has pressed both the NBA and MLB for answers on how the alleged schemes went undetected, and a Senate subcommittee held a hearing in May 2026 examining the rapid expansion of sports betting and its effect on game integrity. Whether that leads to real reform is an open question, and industry observers are skeptical.

But you don't have to wait for Congress to act to protect yourself. Recovery doesn't require a new law. It requires a next step.

If you're trying to stop, the most effective first move is to put distance between you and the product. That means removing the app, blocking the sites, and closing the accounts, not just promising yourself you'll cut back. Our guides walk through exactly how:

Abstinence is the goal here, not "responsible" betting. For someone with a gambling problem, there is no safe amount, no safe time of day, and no safe day of the week. The way out isn't a better betting strategy. It's an exit.

Where the Hope Is

It's easy to read a story like this and feel like the whole world is rigged toward the bet. In a sense, it is: the products are engineered, the ads are everywhere, and even the games are now a betting surface. But that's also the reason to be gentle with yourself. If people with everything to lose got pulled in, the problem was never a lack of willpower on your part.

Recovery is real, and it's common. People rebuild trust, finances, and relationships every day. The first call is often the hardest and the most important.

If gambling has become a problem for you or someone you love, the strongest first move is to build some structure around it. Join Cope Compass to create a personalized plan and find treatment near you, and download the app to keep that plan, and real-time support, in your pocket when the next micro-moment hits. And if you want to talk to someone right now, the National Problem Gambling Helpline is free, confidential, and available 24/7. Call or text 1-800-MY-RESET.

You don't have to have it figured out to reach out. You just have to reach out.

Sources

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