Among the few certainties in life aside from death and taxes is the inevitability that when there’s gambling there will always be the Mob. Don’t take my word for it: Just ask NBA commissioner Adam Silver, (and maybe soon NFL chief Roger Goodell) who might have a starring role in the next Scorsese Mafia epic all because they decided to embrace one of the world’s oldest and most dangerous vices.
Indeed, a duo of federal indictments filed last week will make Scorsese’s job a lot easier. Basketball star Terry Rozier and Hall of Famer–turned-coach Chauncey Billups were caught up in high-roller card games rigged with x-ray tables, hidden cameras, and loaded decks. Celebrities used as bait. Information passed to a “quarterback,” a mob-connected player who never lost. And when the high-rollers couldn’t pay, the threats came. Violence, blackmail, and worse.
In a separate indictment, players were involved in passing confidential information about injuries, etc., so insiders could win lucrative “prop bets,” a popular sports gambling innovation where you wage on how many yards a running back makes in a game, or how many free throws are completed by LeBron.
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