Mafia returns to center stage in NBA betting scandal that included rigged poker games
October 24, 2025
Decades after a crackdown by prosecutors decimated the ranks of the New York Mafia, the indictment of an NBA coach, a player and nearly three dozen others in a betting scandal highlights the mob’s persistence and adaptability. Four of New York’s five organized crime families allegedly participated in the sophisticated rigging of high-stakes poker games that one investigator compared to a Hollywood movie. The mobsters are accused of pocketing some of the $7 million that was fleeced from unsuspecting victims drawn to poker tables in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and Long Island’s seaside playground for the rich and famous.