Las Vegas bookies have helped expose several shaving scandals over the years and have long acted as watchdogs for professional and college sports.
“We would be the ones affected if it happened here,” Westgate vice president of race and sport John Murray said. “We would be the ones, literally, paying out and losing money.”
Murray said he was “shocked” Thursday by reports that Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were among more than 30 people arrested in a takedown of two extensive gambling operations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games with support by Mafia.
The alleged fraud amounted to “tens of millions of dollars,” FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters, but that paled in comparison to Rozier’s $160 million in career earnings and Billup’s $106 million in career earnings as a player.
“I’m always shocked when people who make this kind of money are involved in these things,” Murray said.
Circa sportsbook director Chris Bennett was resigned to the news.
“Mostly a shrug from me,” he said in a text. “People like games. This is nothing new. I haven’t heard of any star players being involved, so it really doesn’t affect me/us much.”
“Alleged Damage”
Rozier was investigated for unusual betting on his individual player props in a March 2023 game in which he played less than 10 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets before claiming injury. Before the game, against the New Orleans Pelicans, Rozier told a longtime friend that he “will remove himself from the game early in the first quarter due to a presumed injury and not return,” the indictment states.
Rozier’s friend, Deniro Laster, shared the information with others, who, according to the indictment, won more than $250,000 in turnovers based on Rozier’s points, rebounds and assists, as he finished with five points, two assists and four rebounds.
The Westgate SuperBook did not offer props on Rozier in the game.
“We had nothing that our team found to be suspicious,” Murray said. “If we had a guy that just under, under, under on Terry Rozier, they’d be severely limited so quickly.
“The security measures would be any kind of suspicious activity, we would flag the account and turn it over to our compliance staff and, if necessary, involve the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
“This is purely speculation on my part. But my guess is that these syndicates focused more on larger national operators who make a lot more player paraphernalia than we do and which very likely also came down through illegal channels.”
The NGCB had no comment on the matter at this time, Public Information Officer Jennifer Morton said in an email.
“Furthermore, at this time, we cannot confirm whether or not an active investigation into the matter is underway,” she said.
In addition to the security measures used by Nevada casinos, Morton said the NGCB requires mandatory reporting of all suspicious betting transactions. She added that Nevada licensees are proactive in conducting due diligence in their identification of customers through “Know Your Customer” protocols, verification of betting sources and reporting of suspicious activity reports.
“Strange Wave of Undermoney”
Matthew Holt, founder of US Integrity, an independent sports betting monitor based in Henderson, sent out a warning to bookies about the game.
“He picked the absolute worst day to do it because (Hornets point guard) LaMelo Ball was out, so all the fantasy people were all over Rozier,” Holt said. “Then there’s this weird wave of undermoney on Rozier from people opening new accounts and weird players who are betting huge on it. And it didn’t make sense, given the situation with their starting point guard out and Rozier taking over those duties for that game.
“The theory was that he should get a bunch of stats. It was really abnormal. We sent it to the NBA. They say they looked into it and found nothing. Rozier still denies it.”
Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was suspended from the NBA in 2024 after admitting to manipulating his performance in a similar sports game and subsequently pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud.
“(Thursday’s) revelations are a stark reminder of the pervasive and predatory illegal market, which ensnares countless individuals and operates out of the blue,” American Gaming Association President Bill Miller said in a statement. “It’s important to recognize that the regulated legal market provides transparency, oversight and cooperation with authorities that help highlight these bad actors.”
Legal sports betting has spread to 38 states since the federal ban was overturned in 2018 by the Supreme Court. Holt, now CEO of Gaming Compliance International, does not blame the proliferation of sportsbooks for the growing number of scandals.
“It is not the widespread gambling that has caused so many more scandals, it is the extensive expansion of markets,” he said. “The reason we had so many fewer scandals 10 to 15 years ago is 15 years ago when you went to bet on an NBA regular season game, you could bet the total, the point spread and the money limit. Now you can bet nine different player props on each player.
“That didn’t exist 15 years ago, and that’s what a lot of these scandals end up being.”
“As much content as possible”
Westgate typically offers NBA gear only on star players. For example, only player props were offered for NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at Thursday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Indiana Pacers game. But national books like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars offered props on 13 players.
“From our perspective, we’re trying to do it on players that will appeal to the public,” SuperBook NBA oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said. “We’ve never even dared to offer bets that are questioned here. I can’t even remember one time when we’ve ever used Terry Rozier in a prop.
“Some of these places in recent years have been looking for as much content as they can provide. I’m sure you won’t see much interest in them, except for sharp players anyway, let alone this.”
That said, Murray doesn’t think the answer is to ban player props.
“I don’t see that as a solution because all it does is push all the action to the illegal books,” he said.
Sherman said he did not adjust any odds on Miami or Portland based on Thursday’s information.
Jones was arrested in Las Vegas. Multiple sources told the Review-Journal that Jones occasionally visited Aria when he was in Las Vegas. These sources had no direct knowledge of any gambling activity during these visits.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@ theplayerlounge.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.
