Meyer Lansky II, the grandson of the legendary mobster, has offered a glimpse into how star athletes who already possess wealth and fame manage to get caught up with the mafia.
On Thursday, news of the arrests of more than two dozen individuals allegedly involved with sports fixing and illegal gambling rings run by the mafia went viral. Three of the arrests in particular – Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, former player and coach Damon Jones, and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier – raised eyebrows.
Billups and Jones were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Both are accused of participating in rigged poker games in which they would use their status as former NBA stars to help lure high-profile, wealthy players to the games. Billups and Jones would then receive a cut of the “winnings” from the fixed games.
“Billups and Jones, in particular… were utilized to attract victims to the games because of their status as former professional athletes,” the DOJ indictment said.
According to the Department of Justice, card players duped into participating in the rigged games lost an estimated $7.15 million dating back to April of 2019.
Why would former and current NBA coaches and players – many of whom have made far more money from basketball than from gambling – risk their legacies by taking part in mob-run card games?
“Well, they’re risk-takers. Athletes like that, they’ve got a lot of adrenaline,” Meyer Lansky II told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “They think they can not only have millions to be paid by a team, but they can make more with their gambling, too. Or they have an addiction to gambling. There’s a lot of people like that. They just want to get involved with that. Maybe they like the affiliation with the people that are in charge of that, or behind those gambling setups and situations again.”
Lansky II also thinks the fame and fortune athletes accrue from sports embolden them.
“I think anybody that gets an extraordinary amount of money, and they’ve got a lot of fans behind them, yeah, they can get to the point where they’re just blind to ‘Nothing can happen to me. Why don’t I just do this?’ I do think that with any background, not just sports. It’s a powerful thing. Money and power and fame, it takes over sometimes.”
Lansky II confirmed that sports have always been a priority business target for the mafia.
“It was pretty easy to fix. It’s always been beneficial…” he said. “Yeah, I think it’s pretty easy to access that. You can do it because, if you’re in the casinos, you have surveillance and people watching, and that’s a lot riskier than it would be for sports betting.”
However, there are other reasons Lansky II believes the relationship between athletes and the mob continues to occur.
“Protection — you don’t have to come up with the front money, you place it with a bookie a lot of times. They’ll look for you if you don’t pay up, but you know, reasons like that, they have great control and great power. They have different ways they do things with somebody. They’re influential themselves when they talk to maybe a player. There’s an affiliation with the mafia and famous people and sports people, they like that connection sometimes. It gives them something. It’s a strong entity in our society, so that’s one of the reasons. They trust them, too.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called the allegations against Billups, Jones, and Rozier “deeply disturbing.”
The post Legendary Mobster’s Grandson Explains How Sports Figures Get Involved with the Mafia: ‘It’s a Powerful Thing’ appeared first on Breitbart.
