FBI Director Kash Patel traveled to New York to unveil twin illegal gambling cases on Thursday, one involving high profile NBA figures allegedly involved in insider sports betting and the other involving a sophisticated scheme to rig high-stakes poker games nationwide. The takedown netted 34 arrests nationwide.

Early Thursday, teams from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York, the FBI, the New York Waterfront Commission, and the NYPD executed coordinated arrests across nine states, capping years of investigative work that one official said “looked like a Hollywood movie” but was, in fact, a highly coordinated, evidence-driven operation. “Operation Royal Flush” is the umbrella name for the coordinated takedown encompassing both EDNY cases.

Investigators credited a joint task force that spent four years dissecting communications, mapping the network, and “following the money with precision,” ultimately uncovering a sprawling criminal enterprise that blended cutting-edge cheating technology, intimidation, and classic organized-crime enforcement.

The NBA insider-betting case: “Operation Nothing But Bet”

Case number one, United States v. Earnest, unsealed Thursday alleges an NBA insider-betting scheme involving six individuals operating from December 2022 through March 2024; Eric Earnest, Marves Fairley, Shane Hennen, Damon Jones, De’Niro Laster, and Terry Rozier. They are charged with “widespread sports betting and money laundering conspiracy” involving wire fraud, using “inside information from National Basketball Association (NBA) players and coaches to profit from illegal betting activity. In at least one instance, a then-current player and alleged co-conspirator Jontay (Jonte) Porter was threatened over gambling debts to obtain information. Porter and Long Phi Pham previously pleaded guilty in 2024 to their participation, according to the Oct. 23, 2025 press release. The NBA conspiracy case was dubbed, “Operation Nothing But Bet.” Officials at Thursday’s press conference said the NBA cooperated with the investigation.

How did they do it?

Using inside information, the crew allegedly placed hundreds of thousands of dollars in wagers—primarily player-prop bets—through online sportsbooks and at casinos, using a network of straw bettors to hit betting limits and scale profits. Most wagers allegedly paid out, with intended losses to sportsbooks in the millions. Proceeds were laundered through peer-to-peer apps, bank wires, and cash exchanges.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch highlighted a concrete example: on March 23, 2023, in Charlotte, Rozier allegedly signaled he would leave early with a supposed injury. Associates then placed over $200,000 on his under props; Rozier exited after nine minutes, and the bets paid, with cash later delivered to his home and counted by the group.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said,

Former and current NBA players and coaches, including Terry Rozier, Damon Jones and additional co-conspirators, allegedly informed the defendants and others of confidential information relating to upcoming NBA games and player performances, such as pre-release medical information and a player’s intention to alter their upcoming game performance, which favored certain bettors within their inner social circle. This alleged collusion resulted in the defendants secretly pocketing their lavish winnings and corrupting NBA games. The FBI will never turn a blind eye to any insider betting scheme within sporting industries – regardless of title or professional affiliation – to protect its integrity and afford all participants a fair chance to win big.

Tisch added,

This investigation exposed a gambling ring built around the NBA, where players and associates allegedly used inside information and even faked injuries to fraudulently manipulate bets on games.

At the NYPD, what we’re announcing today is not just another takedown. It’s the result of more than two years of coordinated investigative work by the NYPD’s Joint Organized Crime Task Force and the FBI—two cases that exposed criminal networks led by 34 individuals who believed the rules didn’t apply to them.

The Oct. 23 press release describes numerous specific examples of activities co-conspirators allegedly engaged in over a two-year period.

Poker-rigging Case: “Operation Venn Diagram”

In United States v. Aiello, members and associates of several La Cosa Nostra families allegedly rigged high-stakes private poker games in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan. Charges include wire-fraud conspiracy for the rigging, with additional counts against some defendants for illegal gambling, money laundering, Hobbs Act robbery, and extortion. In all, 31 defendants have been charged in 11 states, according to the Oct. 23, 2025 press release.

“The crew,” said NYPD Commissioner Tisch, “included capos and soldiers from the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese families. Bringing four of the five families together in a single indictment is extraordinarily rare—it reflects how deep and how far this investigation reached.”

Sophisticated cheating technology and old-school mob muscle

According to prosecutors, the operation used custom shuffling machines that could read the order of cards, barcoded decks, and hidden cameras in tables and light fixtures. Organizers also enlisted public figures—including Chauncey Billups (Trail Blazers head coach, NBA champion, and Hall of Famer) and Damon Jones—to lend legitimacy.

“Victims believed they were at a fair table; instead, they were cheated out of millions. One victim lost $1.8 million,” Tisch said. When victims didn’t pay, defendants used threats, intimidation, and violence — “the same pattern we’ve seen for decades: traditional mob enforcement combined with new technology.”

United States Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr. stated that beginning in 2019 this was a

lucrative fraud scheme to cheat victims, known as “fish,”out of millions of dollars and conspired with others to perpetrate their frauds. Well-known former NBA players and former professional athletes, acted as ‘Face Cards’ to lure unsuspecting victims to high-stakes poker games, where they were then at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contact lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big.

Nocella also shared what he described as “very sophisticated cheating technologies, some of which were provided by other defendants in exchange for a share of the profits.”

For example, they used off the shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand, and relayed that information to an off-site operator. The off-site operator sent the information via cell phone back to a co-conspirator at the table and that person at the table was known as the quarterback. The quarterback then signaled secretly the information he had received from others to others at the table and together they used that information to win their games and to cheat the victims.

Defendants used other treating technologies such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera, special contact lenses or eyeglasses. They could read pre-marked cards at an X-ray table that could read cards face down on the table.

In sum, prosecutors allege the Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese crews organized tables, enforced debts, and took their cut—pairing old-school mob muscle with high-tech cheating gear. When victims balked, defendants allegedly used threats, intimidation, and violence, including a gunpoint robbery to obtain a rigged shuffler. Losses to victims allegedly exceeded $7 million.

Image via Public Domain Pictures.