Ex-NBA player Damon Jones pleads guilty to roles in two league-linked gambling schemes

BROOKLYN (CN) — Former NBA journeyman Damon Jones on Tuesday pleaded guilty to roles in two federal gambling schemes that roiled professional basketball.

In back-to-back hearings in the Eastern District of New York, the longtime guard took a plea on two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, admitting to using his status to both help the mafia fix poker sessions and sell insider information to sports bettors.

“As shown by his guilty pleas today, Damon Jones converted his fame and ties to professional basketball into a multi-faceted criminal betting operation. He used private locker room and medical information from multiple NBA teams to cheat legitimate sportsbooks. He also, separately, lured unsuspecting victims to high-stakes rigged poker games,” Joseph Nocella, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.  “Jones will now face the consequences for his corrupt conduct. Insider betting and rigged poker schemes erode the integrity of American sports and fair contest.”

Jones faces a range of 21 to 27 months in prison in the sports betting case, according to sentencing guidelines. He faces between 48 and 63 months in the poker case after prosecutors agreed to subtract 15 months from the sentence in exchange for his guilty plea.

Jones also agreed to pay a total of $73,000, but he could be ordered to pay additional funds as restitution. The 49-year-old will be sentenced in both cases on Jan. 6, 2027.

He remains free on bail until then.

“The defendant in this case traded his reputation for greed and fraud,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Tuesday. “By exploiting his access to the NBA, and rigging illegal poker games across the country, Damon Jones attempted to orchestrate a scheme that defrauded victims of millions of dollars.”

In the poker indictment, Jones was charged with participating in rigged, mob-backed card games to defraud unsuspecting players out of millions of dollars. Prosecutors say the more than two dozen defendants used intricate cheating technologies like poker chip trays with hidden cameras, special contact lenses or glasses that read premarked cards and even an X-ray table that reads face-down hands.

They also used shuffling machines that could read cards as they doled them, prosecutors claim, informing an off-site operator of who had the best hand at the table.

According to prosecutors, the likes of Jones and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, who is also the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, used their statuses as former players to lure victims into the high-stakes games.

Billups was charged, too. He has pleaded not guilty.

In the sports betting case, Jones was accused of sharing insider information about player injuries with bettors in exchange for kickbacks. Prosecutors say he leveraged his friendships as a player and former coach to get that information on players like LeBron James, Jones’ teammate and longtime friend.

“Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” Jones told a bettor, according to prosecutors, about an injury to James in a 2023 game. “Bet enough so Djones can eat [too] now!!!”

Former Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier is also charged in that indictment. He’s accused of prematurely exiting at least one game so that co-conspirators’ “under” bets on him would cash. Rozier has pleaded not guilty.

Jones initially pleaded not guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges from both indictments last November. His change of plea on Tuesday makes him the first of more than 30 defendants across both cases to admit guilt.

Federal prosecutors announced the dueling cases together on Oct. 23, 2025. In addition to the NBA-linked defendants, the two probes also swept up members of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese organized crime families.

The government said the league has been fully cooperative throughout the process. Billups, whose Trail Blazers are currently down 3-1 to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs, has been on unpaid leave since his arrest last fall. Rozier was also placed on leave by the Heat following his arrest. He was waived by the organization earlier this month and is expected to face additional charges in a superseding indictment coming in May.

Follow @Uebey Follow @uebey.bsky.social