Sportsbooks react to NBA betting scandal: ‘Shocked,’ ‘shoulder shrug’

Las Vegas bookmakers have helped uncover several point-shaving scandals over the years and have long acted as watchdogs for pro and college sports.

“We’d be the ones that suffered if it did happen here,” Westgate vice president of race and sports John Murray said. “We would be the ones, in the literal sense, 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 sprawling gambling operations related to illegal sports betting and rigged poker games backed by the Mafia.

The alleged fraud totaled “tens of millions of dollars,” FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters, but it paled in comparison to Rozier’s $160 million in career earnings and Billups’ $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 shoulder shrug from me,” he said in a text message. “People like gambling. This is nothing new. I haven’t heard of any star players implicated, so it’s really not impacting me/us a whole lot.”

‘Supposed injury’

Rozier was being investigated for unusual betting activity on his individual player props in a March 2023 game in which he played less than 10 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets before claiming he was hurt. Before the game, against the New Orleans Pelicans, Rozier told a longtime friend he was “going to prematurely remove himself from the game in the first quarter due to a supposed 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 wagering under on Rozier’s points, rebounds and assists props, as he finished with five points, two assists and four rebounds.

The Westgate SuperBook didn’t offer props on Rozier in the game.

“We didn’t have anything that our team found to be suspicious,” Murray said. “If we had a guy just betting under, under, under on Terry Rozier, they would be severely limited so quickly.

“The safeguards would be any kind of suspicious activity, we would flag the account and turn it over to our compliance people and, if necessary, get the Nevada Gaming Control Board involved.

“This is purely speculation on my part. But my guess is these syndicates were focusing more on bigger national operators that do a lot more player props than we do and very likely were also getting down through illegal channels.”

The NGCB had no comment on the matter at this time, Public Information Officer Jennifer Morton said in an email.

“Moreover, we can’t confirm at this time whether or not an active investigation on the matter is underway,” she said.

In addition to safeguards deployed by Nevada casinos, Morton said the NGCB requires mandatory reporting for all suspicious wagering transactions. She added that Nevada licensees are proactive in conducting due diligence in their identification of patrons through “Know Your Customer” protocols, verification of wagering sources of funds, and the reporting of Suspicious Activity Reports.

‘Weird wave of under money’

Matthew Holt, founder of U.S. Integrity, an independent sports wagering monitor based in Henderson, sent out an alert to sportsbooks on 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 overs,” Holt said. “Then comes this weird wave of under money on Rozier from people opening up new accounts and strange bettors betting huge on it. And it didn’t make sense, considering the situation with their starting point guard out and Rozier set to take over those duties for that game.

“The theory was he should get a bunch of stats. It was really abnormal. We sent it to the NBA. They say they investigated it and didn’t find anything. Rozier still denies it.”

Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was banned from the NBA in 2024 after admitting to manipulating his performance in a similar sports betting scheme and subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

“(Thursday’s) revelations are a stark reminder of the pervasive and predatory illegal market, ensnaring countless individuals and operating in the shadows,” American Gaming Association president Bill Miller said in a statement. “It is important to recognize that the regulated legal market delivers transparency, oversight and collaboration with authorities that assists in bringing these bad actors to light.”

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, doesn’t blame the proliferation of sportsbooks for the growing number of scandals.

“It’s not the widespread gambling that has caused so many more scandals, it’s the widespread expansion of markets,” he said. “The reason we had so many less scandals 10 to 15 years ago is 15 years ago when you went to bet a regular-season NBA game, you could bet the total, the point spread and the money line. Now, you can bet nine different player props on every player.

“That didn’t exist 15 years ago, and that’s what a lot of these scandals end up being.”

‘As much content as can provide’

The Westgate typically offers NBA props only on star players. For example, there were only player props offered for NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Thursday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Indiana Pacers game. But national books such as DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM and Caesars offered props on 13 players.

“From our perspective, we try to do it on players that are going to appeal to the mass public,” SuperBook NBA oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said. “We’ve never even ventured into offering wagers that are being brought into question here. I can’t even recall a time that we’ve ever used Terry Rozier in a prop.

“Some of these places in the last few years are looking for as much content as they can provide. I’m sure you’re not going to see much interest in those, except for sharp players anyway, let alone this.”

That said, Murray doesn’t think the answer is to ban player props.

“I don’t consider that a solution because all that does is push all the action to those illegal books,” he said.

Sherman said he didn’t 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 would occasionally visit Aria when he was in Las Vegas. Those sources had no direct knowledge of any gambling activity during those visits.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on X.