Inside info on LeBron James’ health part of NBA gambling charges

Ex-player Damon Jones allegedly shared inside information about the health of James with gamblers seeking to profit.

Shortly after the first tip of the NBA regular season, a federal probe of illegal gambling rocked the sport on Thursday morning, including allegations that inside information about LeBron James was used for illicit profit.

Federal authorities arrested Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier early Thursday as part of a multi-year sports betting investigation. Rozier, a veteran guard, did not play in Wednesday’s Heat-Magic opener due to a coach’s decision.

Rozier’s arrest came after authorities probed an uptick in suspicious activity related to his performance in a March 2023 game against New Orleans. Then a member of the Charlotte Hornets, Rozier left the game prematurely with an apparent foot injury.

Separately, authorities also arrested Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups in Oregon. Billups’ arrest is tied to alleged involvement in an illegal poker game operated by organised crime figures. The investigation into the illegal poker games ensnared several members of New York criminal groups, including the infamous La Cosa Nostra network.

In total, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn indicted 31 defendants on Thursday across 11 states. The indictments centred on two major operations: an enterprise to rig illicit poker games at various locations throughout the nation and a sports betting scheme that allegedly used material non-public information to benefit from Rozier’s statistical outcomes.
How LeBron James is referenced in gambling case

A third NBA figure, former guard Damon Jones, was named in indictments connected to both the sports betting and poker investigations.

Jones, a former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate of James who remained close to him afterwards, allegedly attempted to profit from inside information about the NBA star in 2023. According to the indictment, Jones had knowledge that James was suffering from an injury and might not play for the Los Angeles Lakers in an upcoming game. That game took place in February 2023, two days after James broke the NBA all-time scoring record.

Joseph Nocella, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, stated at a Brooklyn news conference that several defendants turned professional basketball into a “criminal betting operation” by using private locker room and medical information to “cheat legitimate sportsbooks”.
Gambling allegations against Rozier do not involve James

Before Rozier signed a multi-year contract with the Heat, he played just 10 minutes in the aforementioned game against the Pelicans on 23 March 2023. At least six sportsbooks in multiple states flagged suspicious activity related to Rozier’s performance, ESPN reported.

One sportsbook took 30 bets in a period of 46 minutes, all of which resulted in wins for the bettor. While the NBA conducted an investigation of the activity, the league did not determine at the time that league betting rules were violated.

Prior to the game, Deniro Laster, another defendant, sold information on Rozier’s plan to leave the game early to multiple co-conspirators, prosecutors stated. Rozier, a close friend of Laster, has known the defendant since childhood, according to the indictment.

Before the game started, Rozier informed Laster of his plans to leave the game prematurely in the first quarter due to a “supposed” injury, prosecutors allege. Based on the information provided by Rozier, the defendants wagered “more than $200,000 on his under statistics”, according to New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

The information was allegedly transmitted to Marves Fairley, another defendant in the case. Fairley, a professional sports betting tout, has been mentioned previously in various media reports for his alleged involvement in the federal sports betting investigation. In exchange for the information, Fairley and another co-conspirator agreed to pay Laster approximately $100,000  from their expected fraudulent gambling winnings, according to the indictment.

“As the NBA tips off, [Rozier’s] career is already benched, not for injury, but for integrity,” Tisch stated.
Patel not mincing words on gravity of allegations

Around 29 March 2023, Fairley allegedly gave Laster tens of thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for the tip on Rozier, according to the indictment. From there, Laster apparently drove from Philadelphia to North Carolina for a meeting with Rozier at his Charlotte home. During the early morning hours of 1 April 2023, the two counted the money that Laster obtained from Fairley, prosecutors allege.

“Let’s not mince words, this is the insider trading saga for the NBA,” said FBI Director Kash Patel at the news conference.

Rozier is not alleged to have any relation to the gambling allegations that involve information about the health of LeBron James.

Jim Trusty, Rozier’s attorney, told USA Today Sports on Thursday that investigators previously told Rozier that he was a “subject, not a target” of the probe.

“Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight,” Trusty wrote in a statement.
Poker investigation of Billups separate from betting

Billups, a five-time All-Star as a player who was the 2004 NBA Finals MVP, is facing charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy in connection with his arrest. The charges centre on his participation in an April 2019 poker game that prosecutors alleged was rigged.

In an attempt to attract unsuspecting victims into the rigged game, Billups and Jones acted as so-called “face cards” by using their celebrity status to bring players to the table, according to the indictments. The pair each received a portion of the ill-gotten proceeds for their participation in the scheme, prosecutors stated.

Four other defendants – Robert Stroud, Eric Earnest, Jamie Gilet and Sophia Wei – organised and participated in the rigged Las Vegas poker game, according to the indictment. As part of the scheme, the defendants defrauded the victims of at least $50,000. Stroud allegedly supplied a rigged shuffling machine that was used in the game.
NBA statement on gambling scandal

Thursday’s arrests come one day after NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called for enhanced regulation of sports betting. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, Silver advocated for restrictions on player props involving reserve players off the bench.

“We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver said. “We’re trying to put in place – learning as we go and working with the betting companies – some additional control to prevent some of that manipulation.”

Shortly after Thursday’s news conference in Brooklyn, the NBA issued a statement on the arrests. The league placed Billups and Rozier on immediate leave. The NBA has cooperated with federal authorities on the comprehensive probe.

“We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today,” the league said in the statement. “We will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities, we take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

Last week, ESPN reported that the FBI has interviewed college athletes regarding an ongoing probe into suspicious betting activity in college basketball. ESPN cited documents that linked Fairley to a pattern of irregular activity on first-half college wagers. When reached by ESPN, Fairley denied the allegations. Nocella noted on Thursday that his office’s investigation does not pertain to college hoops.
Ongoing investigation involving Porter

Well prior to Thursday’s indictments, former Toronto Raptors centre Jontay Porter was convicted on federal wire fraud charges related to illicit sports betting and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. Porter conspired with a gambling syndicate to defraud a sports betting company by deliberately underperforming on a bevy of statistical categories in a March 2024 game.

The NBA later banned Porter for life. At least two of Porter’s co-conspirators, Ammar Awawdeh and Shane Hennen, were named in Thursday’s indictments. The investigation is ongoing, Nocella stressed.

Four Mafia organised crime groups, the Lucchese, Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese families, played a role in the poker scheme, federal officials said Thursday. In using sophisticated manipulation technology, the Mafia-backed poker scheme defrauded individuals of at least $7 million, according to prosecutors.

“The FBI will never turn a blind eye to any insider betting scheme within sporting industries – regardless of title or professional affiliation – to protect its integrity,” said Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.

Feds reveal mafia-linked gambling probe that led to arrests of Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and NBA star Terry Rozier

Winning is typically a good thing for the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.

But six years ago, the scammers allegedly using Chauncey Billups as part of a sprawling criminal scheme to lure unsuspecting poker players to rigged tables believed he was winning far too much.

Billups was a “Face Card,” prosecutors said, a high-profile person who could help attract big-fish gamblers to ritzy card games in Manhattan, Las Vegas, Miami and the Hamptons. Billups, aided by equipment like a manipulated shuffling machine and an X-ray table, played on the “Cheating Team.”

In the middle of a game in Vegas in April 2019, the orchestrators of the plot realized they had a problem: Billups was winning too many improbable hands. The streak would surely draw suspicion, they said in text messages included in court documents unsealed Thursday. Billups needed to do something very few professional athletes enjoy: lose on purpose. That’s the only way the criminal enterprise could keep raking in cash.

It ultimately netted more than $7 million over six years.

Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and dozens of others were charged Thursday as part of two sweeping investigations: one into illegal sports gambling and the other into poker rigging schemes allegedly backed by the Mafia.

The extraordinary federal takedown led to the arrests of more than 30 people across 11 states on charges including wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery and illegal gambling, FBI Director Kash Patel said at a news conference.

“The fraud is mind-boggling,” Patel told reporters, referring to the alleged wrongdoing as a “criminal enterprise that envelops both the NBA and La Cosa Nostra.” He said the schemes involved “tens of millions of dollars” in ill-gotten gains.

The web of alleged criminal activity was laid out in two federal indictments that read like plot summaries for Martin Scorsese crime epics. Officials say key roles were played in one case by members of the notorious Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese crime “families” — as well as defendants with nicknames like “The Wrestler,” “Juice,” “Big Bruce” and “Pookie.”

The indictments threaten to create a reputational headache for both the NBA, one of the marquee professional sports leagues in the country, and the booming but increasingly scrutinized sports gambling industry. In a statement, the NBA said Billups and Rozier would be placed on “immediate leave.”

In the first case, dubbed “Operation Nothing But Bet” by federal agents, prosecutors accuse six defendants of participating in an insider sports betting scheme that “exploited confidential information” about basketball players and teams, U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. of the Eastern District of New York told reporters at the news conference.

Nocella called that alleged conspiracy “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”

Rozier was charged in that indictment. The former Charlotte Hornets player was arrested Thursday morning in Orlando, Florida, and he appeared in the city’s federal courthouse later Thursday. The indictment says he was also known by the nicknames “Scary Terry” and “Chum.”

In the second case, dubbed “Operation Royal Flush,” prosecutors accuse 31 defendants of a plot to rig underground poker games. The suspects allegedly used high-tech cheating gadgets to steal millions of dollars from games backed by four of the “Five Families” that have long ruled organized crime in the New York area.

The high-tech equipment described by Nocella included poker chip trays that secretly read cards with a hidden camera, special contact lenses that can read pre-marked cards and an X-ray table that can read cards facing down.

Billups was charged in that indictment, along with former NBA player Damon Jones.

It was not immediately clear where Billups was arrested, but he appeared Thursday in court in Portland, Oregon, where he lives. He was released on conditions that include travel restrictions, no gambling activity, a no contact order and standard conditions regarding firearms, according to NBC affiliate KGW. Billups coached the Blazers on Wednesday night in Portland.

Jones was arrested in Las Vegas. It was not immediately clear whether Jones had an attorney; calls and text messages to a phone number believed to belong to him were not returned.

“Your winning streak has ended,” Nocella said at the news conference, addressing the defendants in the “Royal Flush” case and appearing to enjoy the wordplay. “Your luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that.”

Three of the defendants were allegedly involved in both cases, according to Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’’s New York field office.

The betting ring

The Charlotte Hornets were preparing to face off against the New Orleans Pelicans on March 23, 2023, and Terry Rozier had a plan. Rozier, at the time a starter for the Hornets, told Deniro Laster, a childhood friend, that he was going to “prematurely remove himself from the game in the first quarter due to a supposed injury and not return to play further,” prosecutors say.

Laster turned around and sold the tip about Rozier’s intentions to other defendants and co-conspirators, giving them a chance to “place fraudulent wagers based on the non-public information,” prosecutors say. Rozier was true to his word, they said, playing roughly nine minutes and 34 seconds before taking himself out of the game. The bets raked in thousands of dollars.

In their indictment, prosecutors accuse Rozier, Laster and four other defendants of participating in a “scheme to defraud” betting companies by “providing, obtaining and using non-public information relating to NBA games to place and cause others to place fraudulent sports wagers for profit, and to launder the proceeds thereof.”

The defendants and some of their co-conspirators had “access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches” that was likely to affect the outcomes of upcoming league games or certain players’ performances on the court, prosecutors said. Rozier’s choreographed exit from the Hornets’ March 2023 game against the Pelicans was just one example of that information-sharing system at work, they said.

Jones allegedly sold information on a prominent NBA player’s injury to bettors while he was an unofficial assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2023. He is said to have texted a co-conspirator that a certain player would be out when the Lakers faced the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 9, 2023. “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out,” Jones said, according to the indictment.

When the game started that night, fans and viewers learned Lebron James was out with a sore left ankle and foot, according to a game recap from the time.

The poker games

The dozens of men (and one woman) accused of rigging poker games across the country over the last half-decade can’t be accused of using low-tech methods.

The defendants are said to have used “Rigged Shuffling Machines” that were secretly altered to read the cards in a deck, predict which player at the table had the best hand and relay that valuable information via interstate wires to an off-site operator. The operator then communicated that information by cellphone to one of the cheaters, referred to as the “Quarterback” or the “Driver,” who used “secret signaling” with other scammers at the table.

But that wasn’t the extent of the cheating system, according to prosecutors. The orchestrators also used electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards placed on the table, card analyzers with decoy cellphones that could surreptitiously detect which cards were on the table and playing cards with markers visible only to players wearing specifically designed contact lenses or sunglasses.

All that was in the service of what prosecutors characterized as a “complex fraud scheme to rig, or cheat at, illegal poker games in the Eastern District of New York and throughout the United States,” beginning in at least 2019. The suspects allegedly rigged card games at otherwise “straight tables” at locations across New York City, as well as Las Vegas, Miami and the Hamptons.

The defendants did that with the help of organized crime families, who “provided support and protection for the games and collected owed debts from the games in exchange for a portion of the illegal gambling proceeds,” according to the indictment. The victims, who were defrauded out of millions of dollars, had no idea they were playing against cheaters, it says.

Meanwhile, “members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese Crime Families used threats and intimidation to assure payment of debts from the Rigged Games and the ‘square’ illegal poker games organized” by the defendants, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors estimate that the defendants caused losses to victims totaling at least $7 million.

The players

Rozier’s attorney said in a statement that he had “reached out to these prosecutors to tell them we should have an open line of communication.”

“They characterized Terry as a subject, not a target, but at 6 a.m. this morning they called to tell me FBI agents were trying to arrest him in a hotel,” said the lawyer, Jim Trusty. “It is unfortunate that instead of allowing him to self-surrender, they opted for a photo-op.”

“They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk. That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case,” Trust added. “They appear to be taking the word of spectacularly in-credible sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing. Terry was cleared by the NBA, and these prosecutors revived that non-case. Terry is not a gambler, but he is not afraid of a fight, and he looks forward to winning this fight.”

Billups' attorney, Chris Heywood, said Billups will fight the charges and is not guilty of any wrongdoing. "Anyone who knows Chauncey Billups knows he is a man of integrity; men of integrity do not cheat and defraud others," Heywood said.

"To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game," Heywood said.

"Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to," Heywood added.

The Miami Heat did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, the NBA said it was in the “process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

The Blazers said that the team was cooperating with the investigation and that Tiago Splitter will be the interim head coach.

Rozier, an Ohio native and 10-year NBA veteran, was picked 16th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2015 NBA draft after having played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals.

Billups has coached since 2021, following a widely lauded 17-season playing career that culminated in the sport’s highest honor: enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame last year.

He entered the NBA in 1997 as the third overall draft pick. By 2004, his clutch baskets and on-court leadership were vital to Detroit’s NBA championship over the Lakers. The title run earned him the nickname “Mr. Big Shot” and the honor of being named the NBA Finals MVP, and it transformed his career. From 2006 to 2010, Billups was voted an All-Star five times.

After he retired in 2014, Billups worked as an NBA analyst for ESPN. After one season as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers, he was hired by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021.

Thursday’s high-profile arrests come four months after another NBA star, Gilbert Arenas, was arrested and indicted after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California alleged he was involved in helping operate illegal, high-stakes poker games out of a Los Angeles-area home he owned. Arenas has pleaded not guilty.

Investigations into gambling have extended to active NBA players in recent seasons, as well. Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors pleaded guilty in federal court and was banned by the NBA for life last year for violating the league’s sports gambling rules, with the league alleging that he had bet on NBA games and disclosed confidential information about his own participation to bettors. He is set to be sentenced in December.

Top NBA Gambling Exec Warns On Going ‘Too Far, Too Fast’ With Sports Betting

There is a curious dichotomy unfolding in gambling markets around the globe, leading one NBA executive to express a desire for caution.

Earlier this month, the NHL’s Washington Capitals became the first US pro team to put a gambling sponsorship on a jersey. But on the other side of the pond, the UK is going the opposite way. The UK government is soon expected to ban betting sponsors on soccer shirts.

UK politician Carolyn Harris told newspapers:

“Banning front-of-shirt ads is of course the right thing to do, but it just scratches the surface. We’re bombarded by gambling adverts and that has to stop. Adverts should be completely banned to protect children and prevent harm.”

To some, the UK experience is a harbinger of things to come in the US: an example of the backlash when sports betting becomes too prevalent.

But are US sports betting stakeholders paying attention? 

That was the question asked last week of Scott Kaufman-Ross, SVP and head of gaming at the NBA. 

 

Specifically, Kaufman-Ross was asked on a SportTechie webinar whether leagues were heeding the lessons from Europe as they built out their sports betting strategies.

Kaufman-Ross responded:

“Whilst there are things that might be legal or fans may want, we have to be careful not to go too, far too fast and risk the overregulation we have seen in other markets.”

“A healthy, legal sports betting industry is what we all want and we have to be prudent.”

 

For the NBA, that means not yet allowing betting sponsorships on jerseys, as the NHL did.

“We’re monitoring all that stuff [in Europe],” Kauffman-Ross added. “We didn’t think it was the right time for us to open up [jersey sponsorship].”

“Some leagues are more permissive and we don’t judge anyone. We didn’t feel it right for the NBA and we’ll see where it goes. We want to crawl before we walk, before we run.”

 

It is a subtle but interesting shift given the NBA was the first league to embrace sports betting way back in 2014. Commissioner Adam Silver famously penned an op-ed for the New York Times arguing sports betting should be taxed and regulated.

Now the NBA might be a little more cautious than its peers, especially as the NFL goes all-in on sports betting with its official partnerships.

Following those agreements, US sportsbooks spent $24 million on NFL TV ads during Week One alone.

 

The growing saturation of sports betting has also prompted warnings from other parts of the industry.

Regulators from New Jersey and Colorado said recently that operators needed to rein in marketing or risk a regulatory crackdown.

They too highlighted Europe as a cautionary tale. The warnings, it seems, are building up.

But is enough of the industry listening?

NBA Signs Deal With Second Sports Betting Partner

he NBA on Tuesday signed its second sports betting partner that will buy the official data to the league’s games and be able to use team and league trademarks.

The deal is with The Stars Group, a Canadian-based company that currently has an operating license in New Jersey under its BetStars brand.

BetStars will be called an “Authorized Gaming Operator” of the NBA, a designation that the league intends to sell to others.

The NBA was the first U.S. sports league to do an official deal with a betting partner, signing MGM as the “official gaming partner” in July. MGM went on to do similar deals with the NHL and Major League Baseball.

“This is the second company that has done a deal that has seen the value of working together with the league,” Scott Kaufman-Ross, the NBA’s head of fantasy and gaming, told The Action Network. “They’ve understood that, aside from the data, they get the rights to the marks and logos on their platform, which helps differentiate them from the offshore sites and others and leads to having a more authentic looking product.”

The deal includes promoting BetStars on NBA assets, including NBA.com. How intricately the NBA will promote odds available on the site is unknown, but the technology exists that will allow the league to geotarget so that odds can be shown to someone with an IP address of a state that has legalized gambling, while shielding the odds from a consumer in a non-legalized state.

The Stars Group spokesman Vaughan Lewis told The Action Network that the deal “further enhances consumer confidence in our offering and acts as an official endorsement of our sportsbook offering here in the States.”

Kaufman-Ross said that selling data is not taking the place of the league’s pursuit of an integrity fee, whereby the league would get a small percentage of the total handle bet on its games from operators.

“We will still pursue the so-called integrity fee in parallel,” Kaufman-Ross said. “We hope states will recognize the role we play in legislation.”

None of the eight states that currently offer legal sports betting pay the leagues an integrity fee. Washington D.C., which could legalize sports gambling next Tuesday, recently removed the integrity fee requirement. Some states, like Missouri, Kansas and Michigan, are currently debating whether they should set aside the fees from operators to go to leagues.

Sixers, PartyPoker end partnership amid daily sports fantasy surge

The Philadelphia 76ers and PartyPoker have ended what both sides said in 2014 was a groundbreaking partnership between an NBA team and an online gambling business.

Sixers CEO Scott O'Neil confirmed Wednesday night that the partnership had ended, but declined to explain why the two businesses parted ways, other than to say that even multiyear partnerships such as this one have "triggers" that allow for "adjustments based on market opportunity."

Someday, sports gambling - online and otherwise - might be a hot market opportunity nationally, as it is in Las Vegas now and in other countries such as the United Kingdom.


But today, the hot sports market opportunity is the explosion of advertising and attention devoted to daily fantasy sports - and the Sixers were the first NBA team to sign a sponsorship deal with DraftKings, a fantasy-sports operator.

In fantasy sports, people choose real players for an imaginary team. Points are awarded based on the real statistics of real players.

Along with FanDuel, DraftKings has spent millions on advertising on television screens, social media, billboards and other places capable of displaying their name. In recent days, the AT&T SEPTA station, which is where fans get off to watch all four Philadelphia teams, was plastered with DraftKings advertising.

Sixers owner Josh Harris also owns the New Jersey Devils of the NHL and the Devils' home arena, the Prudential Center in Newark. O'Neil serves as CEO of the company that overseas all three operations.

The PartyPoker deal remains as is with the Devils and the Prudential Center.

PartyPoker gained approval to run online gambling - not involving sports - through casinos in Atlantic City in 2015.

On Jan. 9, 2014, at a news conference in Newark, O'Neil announced the deal with PartyPoker's parent company, Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment Plc.

"This is our flag in the ground that we do things differently," O'Neil told Bloomberg News on the day of the announcement. "We're looking for groundbreaking opportunities with companies willing to take chances."

In a statement issued that day, Norbert Teufelberger, CEO of Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, said, "We are excited to be working with the Devils and 76ers and to be able to offer their fans great digital content and unique game-day experiences. They are two of the most iconic names in American hockey and basketball with huge and loyal fan bases throughout New Jersey and the surrounding metropolitan areas. There is an affinity between playing in online poker tournaments and sports - winning is about having intense focus, stamina, and a great competitive spirit."

Bwin.Party could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

What changed in less than 12 months is that daily sports fantasy exploded in the United States.

In December 2014, the Sixers announced that DraftKings would become the "presenting partner" of several of the team's digital platforms, including the official website, newsletter, mobile app, and radio broadcast.

On Feb. 2 of this year, DraftKings and PartyPoker were part of a Sixers contingent that rang the opening bell to start trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange. But PartyPoker is not part of the Sixers' sponsorship lineup for the 2015-16 season that starts Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the daily sports fantasy surge has prompted debate about whether it is any different than gambling, which is prohibited in all but four states and meaningful only in Nevada. The Justice Department and other authorities are looking into FanDuel and DraftKings, though the area has little in the way of regulation.

Also, PartyPoker's parent company, Bwin.Party, was sold in September to GVC Holdings for $1.4 billion. Speculation in the online gambling media is that GVC might sell PartyPoker to Amaya Gaming, a Montreal-based company that owns PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Amaya also has a sports fantasy division called StarsDraft. Amaya said recently StarsDraft will operate in only four states, one of which is New Jersey.

NBA disciplines 6 referees for gambling offences

The National Basketball Association has punished six referees for minor gambling offences, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

Citing sources, the newspaper reported Sunday that the six unnamed officials were punished for infractions such as visiting casinos, and that their cases are not related to the Tim Donaghy betting scandal.

"Nobody's getting suspended. They were reprimanded and punished, but nobody lost their job," a source was quoted as saying.

In September, Donaghy forfeited $30,000 US in restitution to the government under his plea deal, according to court records.

The veteran referee pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn, N.Y., court to felony charges for taking cash payoffs from gamblers and betting on games he officiated. He was released on $250,000 bond and is set to be sentenced Nov. 9.

Court papers say Donaghy, 40, started placing bets on NBA games in 2003. He then gave gamblers inside information, including tips on which crews would officiate games and how the various officials and players interacted.

He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison for conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce. He also must pay a $500,000 fine in addition to the restitution already paid.