Damon Jones, a former professional basketball player accused of facilitating illegal bets on the N.B.A. and profiting from rigged poker games run by the Mafia, pleaded guilty to federal charges on Tuesday.
At two hearings in Brooklyn federal court, Mr. Jones admitted to wire fraud conspiracy. He is the first defendant to plead guilty out of more than 30 who were charged last fall in two sweeping indictments brought by prosecutors in Brooklyn that targeted illegal gambling involving current and former N.B.A. players.
His pleas came amid growing scrutiny of the impact of widespread, legalized gambling, enabled by easy access to mobile apps, on American culture and society.
“I’d like to sincerely apologize to the court, my family, my peers and also the National Basketball Association,” Mr. Jones said at his first hearing, where he added that he had used inside information to defraud sports betting platforms.
About an hour later, Mr. Jones entered a second guilty plea, saying he had participated in three rigged poker games between 2020 and 2023, two in Miami and one in East Hampton.
“I knew these games were rigged,” Mr. Jones said.
In the sports betting case, prosecutors had recommended prison time of 21 to 27 months. In the poker case, they had recommended 63 to 78 months, but had agreed to recommend a 15-month deduction if he pleaded guilty before April 30.
Individuals like Mr. Jones — accused of trading on access to inside information about events that gamblers can bet on, from sports games to foreign affairs — have become the target of a number of federal prosecutions.
“Damon Jones converted his fame and ties to professional basketball into a multifaceted criminal betting operation,” Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
In the poker case, prosecutors said, Mr. Jones played in high-level games organized by the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families. The games were rigged using hidden technology that read cards in the deck and predicted which player would be dealt the best hand.
Prosecutors said Mr. Jones had served as a “face card,” used to bait other high rollers into joining the games.
Other professional basketball figures charged in the indictments included Terry Rozier, an N.B.A. guard who most recently played for the Miami Heat, and Chauncey Billups, a head coach who made the Hall of Fame as a player.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors have suggested they are expanding their crackdown on illegal sports betting. On Monday, prosecutors said they planned to bring new charges against Mr. Rozier, accusing him of taking a bribe and depriving the Charlotte Hornets of his honest services.
Mr. Rozier has been accused of telling gamblers about his plans to leave a 2023 game early with an injury when he was with the Hornets. Those gamblers then bet on his underperformance and profited, prosecutors said. His lawyer has sought to have his indictment dismissed.
Mr. Billups, who was coaching the Portland Trail Blazers at the time of the indictment, stands accused of playing in the rigged poker games. He has pleaded not guilty and remains suspended from the N.B.A.
Mr. Jones, 49, spent 11 seasons as a journeyman shooting guard in the N.B.A. for teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he became close friends with LeBron James, and the Milwaukee Bucks. He was known as a three-point specialist.
Between 2016 and 2018, during Mr. James’s second stint with the team, Mr. Jones was an assistant coach for the Cavaliers. He later joined the Los Angeles Lakers as an unofficial coach, and he often worked with Mr. James before games.
There, prosecutors say he used his connections to players, including Mr. James, to sell information to professional gamblers. Mr. James, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, is not named in the indictment, but he matches the description of a person referred to as “Player 3.” Prosecutors said Mr. Jones played with and coached Player 3, whom the indictment described as a “prominent” N.B.A. player.
Before a game on Feb. 9, 2023, between the Lakers and Bucks, Mr. Jones told a co-conspirator that Player 3 would be sitting out that night, prosecutors said. “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” Mr. Jones wrote.
Critics say the federal cases, which frame gambling companies as the victims of criminal schemes, are insufficient to address what they call the growing influence of gambling on many aspects of American life.
Recent insider trading scandals have gone beyond basketball. Some have geopolitical implications, with people in roles like Mr. Jones’s wagering on clandestine operations.
Last week, a U.S. Army special forces soldier who helped capture Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan leader, was charged with using classified information to wager on the mission on Polymarket, a prediction marketplace.
Mr. Jones’s lawyer declined to speak to reporters after the hearings. Walking away from the courthouse in Brooklyn Heights, Mr. Jones offered just one exhortation: “To God be the glory.”
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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