Poker Player Once Raised Concerns Over Rigged Games Involving Chauncey Billups

Concerns about rigged poker games allegedly involving NBA coach Chauncey Billups have been surfacing within the poker community for years, according to a recently resurfaced clip from a 2023 podcast in which one professional poker player describes a rumor similar to what federal officials laid out in their indictment against the NBA Hall of Famer this week.

Billups, 49, was arrested and charged Thursday, Oct. 23 in connection with rigged poker games operated by multiple New York City mob families, which allegedly defrauded wealthy poker players out of more than $7 million since the illegal gambling scheme began in 2019.

But this wasn’t the first time the allegations have come to light. 

On a recently resurfaced episode of the “Only Friends” podcast from 2023, professional poker player Matthew Berkey expressed concerns about games involving the former Detroit Pistons star, who federal authorities alleged this week was used “to attract” wealthy players to rigged games run by the mafia. 

Clips from the podcast went viral on Thursday after news about Billups’ indictment — which was alongside more than two dozen others, including members of the New York-based Gambino and Lucchese crime families — was announced at a press conference by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In one clip from the 2023 episode, Berkey claims that he had been repeatedly invited to take part in poker games that were “built around Chauncey Billups,” which he believed to be rigged. 

Berkey said he had close friends who agreed to play in the games and continued doing so even after losing large amounts of money because they thought the players they were playing against were “so bad,” he said, and that they could win easily.

However, Berkey said he was concerned because the players who were allegedly “so bad” continued to beat the professional players who would come to the games, repeatedly winning large bets on unlikely hands, which caused him and others who knew about the game to become suspicious about it.

“It obviously was like, for sure confirmed to be cheating,” Berkey alleges on the podcast, describing how the games were repeatedly ending with professional players losing large amounts of money to amateurs who appeared to not know the rules. “Like, people who clearly didn’t even understand the rules of no-limit hold ‘em are just jamming hundreds of big blinds in with a gutty and just drilling it. And like, only the pros are losing?”

Berkey was referring to moments in a poker game when players would place large bets despite needing one specific card to win a hand, yet they allegedly continued to win when the card was pulled despite the long odds.

“It was basically confirmed amongst all the pros that there was cheating, but there was just no recourse,” Berkey said, as he and his co-hosts then discussed the danger of calling out cheaters during poker games.

Berkey alleged that the players he knew who lost money during the games “got absolutely filleted.”

The professional poker player added: “It’s tough too whenever you’re dealing with somebody high-profile like that because they carry a lot of weight and hold a lot of power.”

PEOPLE has reached out to representatives for Billups for comment.

The federal indictment unsealed this week alleges that members of the Gambino and Lucchese mob families, who were also charged for their involvement in organizing the games, “used threats and intimidation to assure payment of debts” from the wealthy players who lost during the rigged games. Billups would then allegedly get a cut of the money, federal authorities claimed.

Billups, the 2004 NBA Finals MVP who now coaches the Portland Trailblazers, was released on bond Thursday. The NBA announced Thursday that the Trailblazers head coach was placed “on immediate leave” from the team.

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the league said, referring to both Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier’s indictment for an unrelated illegal betting scheme federal authorities also announced Thursday.

Billups is scheduled to appear in federal court on Nov. 24.