{"id":16680,"date":"2025-10-25T20:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16680\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T20:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:47:08","slug":"shellshocked-nba-mob-poker-victim-was-shaken-down-for-1m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16680\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Shellshocked’ NBA mob poker victim was shaken down for $1M"},"content":{"rendered":"

A purported victim of a Texas jeweler linked to the NBA cheating ring <\/a>says he and his poker buddies were scammed out of nearly $1 million in a single night \u2014 but that the fraudsters used an ex-NFL player, not a basketball star, as their front man.<\/p>\n

The stunning claim could mean that the exploding NBA gambling scandal could be much bigger than prosecutors have thus far revealed, and might include stars in other sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the game,\u00a0we were around a bunch of bad guys, and they were trying to suck every bit away from us. And they did. They did a good job, and I\u2019m still shell-shocked to this day from that night,\u201d a source, who did not want to be named, told The Post.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors announced the arrest of 31 people this week in connection with a sprawling poker scam led by the mob. FBI Director Kash Patel and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of New York hold a briefing after Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry<\/p>\n

He said he was invited to the private, high-stakes poker game \u201cwith a really solid group of people. We would never have been there if not for the professional athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n

He refused to name the athlete, but indicated it was a former NFL player.<\/p>\n

Until now, the scandal has revolved around NBA players and a coach.<\/p>\n

Two pro basketball players were named by prosecutors in the sprawling poker case, which alleges that fraudsters and mobsters allegedly fixed big-money games using sophisticated cheating tech<\/a> like rigged X-ray card tables, crooked card shufflers, and special glasses and contact lenses that could spy marked cards, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in Brooklyn federal court.<\/p>\n

Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and former NBA player Damon Jones were named.<\/p>\n

The fixers called their deep-pocketed victims \u201cfish,\u201d while the high-profile athletes who lured them to the tables were called \u201cface cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chauncey Billups, left, was allegedly paid as a \u201cface card\u201d to attract big money players. Obtained by NYPost<\/p>\n

The anonymous fish could not say if his fleecing was part of the same poker ring probed by the feds \u2014 but he did finger at least one man involved in both.<\/p>\n

He said Curtis Meeks of Texas \u2014\u00a0who was named in the Thursday indictment as a major supplier of the cheating machines to the scammers \u2014 was a main participant in the rigged game that bilked him and his buddies out of nearly $1 million in a single night.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMeeks is the most despicable human I\u2019ve ever been around in my entire life,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level he will go to get other people\u2019s money is just disgusting. I\u2019ve since found out that what he\u2019s done to us, he\u2019s done to many other people. This was not a freak occurrence,\u201d the alleged victim said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors did not go into great detail regarding Meeks. According to a gambling world insider, \u201cMeeks supposedly was an amateur boxer. He went around telling people that he\u2019s a jeweler. That was his schtick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victim described Curtis Meeks as \u201cthe most despicable human I\u2019ve ever been around in my entire life.\u201d Williamson County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

He and 30 others were arrested in connection to the massive poker ring, an indictment that also named a slew of mob associates who have previously made headlines \u2014 including\u00a0Thomas \u201cTommy Juice\u201d Gelardo, who allegedly collected gambling debts with threats and intimidation; and\u00a0Nicholas \u201cFat Nick\u201d Minucci, a Gambino crime family associate who was convicted of beating a black kid with a baseball bat while shouting the N-word in 2005.<\/p>\n

An attorney for Meeks was not listed, and his family could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

On the night Meeks allegedly took the Post source for a ride, he used a retired NFL athlete to lure the group into a situation they realized was sketchy from the get-go, but it wasn\u2019t until they were in the midst of the game did they realize they were being scammed.<\/a><\/p>\n

The professional jock was to join a game planned at a public location, but the venue was suddenly changed to his high-rise apartment, the man said.<\/p>\n

The group allegedly used rigged X-ray card tables, card shufflers and special glasses and contact lenses. US Attorney \/ EDNY<\/p>\n

There was a series of other red flags, the alleged victim said, including that once inside the apartment, the host raised the buy-in from $10,000 to $20,000 \u2014 meaning the victims would lose more money faster. They didn\u2019t exchange cash to get in the game, but were given chips on a credit basis \u2014 payable afterwards.<\/p>\n

And all the winning hands went \u201cto the four guys who were in on the scam,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys cheated with a device, and they cheated me and cheated other people who were good people. And they used a star athlete. They used the star to do it. They had us excited. The only reason they were able to pull this off was because they had a professional athlete in place,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that it was a device because of how they would push. It wasn\u2019t like a thing where they could see the backs of cards. It was like, let\u2019s go all in before any cards even come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the man\u2019s friends recognized the scam and called out the group before leaving the apartment, but the mobsters followed up with weeks and weeks of relentless demands that they pay up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t let up in trying to get their money. It got scarier and scarier. Serious threats were made. Ultimately, we just agreed to pay them,\u201d the victim explained.<\/p>\n

The incident closely resembles the plot laid out by federal prosecutors this month, though the 31-defendant indictment does not mention any NFL players or athletes from other sports leagues.<\/p>\n

Neither the NFL nor the Eastern District of New York immediately responded to The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

A second NBA-related indictment this week involves an illegal sports gambling ring that placed bets on games using insider information<\/a> about the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, Charlotte Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers and their players.<\/p>\n

While the poker scam cost the victim and his friends nearly $1 million, the man says the real price was his \u201ctrust for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward is the real punishment. Because there\u2019s a paranoia now. There\u2019s a constant turn in my mind: Something is happening. Considering how sophisticated AI has been and how sophisticated they are, that\u2019s scary to me. I\u2019ve been around so long, playing poker, and I am fine with losing, but I have no tolerance for cheating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A purported victim of a Texas jeweler linked to the NBA cheating ring says he and his poker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11827,6239,21,6114,9,11,10,10664,10693,319,58],"class_list":["post-16680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-brooklyn-federal-court","tag-mafia","tag-nba","tag-nba-betting","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-poker","tag-scams","tag-sports","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}