Former NBA player and coach Damon Jones is expected to change his plea to guilty in two high-profile US federal cases related to illegal gambling, according to multiple media reports.
A notice from the court says that Mr. Jones, who had previously been charged with a not guilty plea, will formally enter his guilty plea at a Brooklyn magistrates’ hearing on April 28.
He is one of 30+ defendants charged with fraud and rigging poker games in multiple indictments for sports gambling.
According to prosecutors, the defendant had a significant role in both the fraud and manipulation of private gambling events based on using and misusing illegally obtained non-public information.
In this case, Mr. Jones will be accused of providing unlawful and confidential information from the NBA to the bettors regarding the game.
One situation mentioned by authorities is a game played between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers on February 9, 2023. Mr. Jones was alleged to have tipped an accomplice prior to the game and suggested placing a large wager on the Milwaukee Bucks before news became public that LeBron James, due to injury, would not play.
The game was subsequently lost by the Lakers. New allegations were made indicating that he (Jones) had also provided some information about Anthony Davis, as it related to his expected playing time in another game. Allegedly, a person placed a very large bet based on this information, which later turned out to be untrue. In this instance, authorities allege that this type of information exchange was part of a much larger scheme of developing and capitalising on inside information, which calls into question the integrity of professional basketball and the protections of sensitive data by teams.
Rigged poker games linked to organised crime. In addition to these sports betting claims, allegations exist regarding Jones’s involvement in a sophisticated poker fraud scheme. According to prosecutors, Jones was acting as a “face card,” or well-known person used to entice wealthy individuals to play an invite-only poker game where the games were rigged.
The rigged poker games were allegedly run by organised crime syndicates and had many sophisticated methods of rigging the games. Indictments contain reports of how the games were rigged with hidden cameras in the chip tray, as well as, tampered shuffling machines to be able to differentiate between cards.
While participants in these rigged poker games did not know they had played a rigged game, the individuals who worked with Jones coordinated their play to ensure the invited participants would lose. Jones was allegedly involved in these events and was paid for bringing individuals in to play.
