MLB, sportsbooks cap bets on individual pitches in response to pitch rigging scandal

Thank you, Director Patel. To be clear, we’re announcing today indictments in two major cases, both involving fraud. One involves sports betting and the other involves illegal gambling, very specifically rigged poker games. The first indictment involves 6 defendants who are alleged to have participated in one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States. This scheme is an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about National Basketball Association athletes and teams. The second indictment involves 31 defendants alleged to have participated in *** nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games. These defendants, which include former professional athletes, used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games that were secretly fixed. The games in the New York area were backed by the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families of Le Casa Nostra. Well, the cases are separate. There are 3 overlapping defendants charged in both cases, Damon Jones, Eric Earnest, and Shane Hennon. The indictments in these cases contain only allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until they are proven guilty in *** court of law. But my message to the defendants who’ve been rounded up today is this. Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out. Violating the law is *** losing proposition and you can bet on that. First, I would like to talk about United States versus Earnest, the NBA basketball gambling case. The defendants in this case are Eric Earnest. Marvez Farley. Shane Hennon, De Niro Laster, Damon Jones, *** former NBA player and coach, and Terry Rozierre, *** current NBA player. Other co-conspirators were previously charged for their roles in the scheme, including former NBA player Jontay Porter. Between December 2022 and March 2024, these defendants perpetrated *** scheme to defraud by betting on inside non-public information about NBA athletes and teams. The non-public information included when specific players would be sitting out future games or when they would pull themselves out early for purported injuries or illnesses. They relied on corrupt individuals including Jones and Rozierre. They also misused information obtained through long standing friendships that they had with NBA players and coaches. And in at least one instance, They got their information by threatening *** current player, Porter, because of his pre-existing gambling debts. Defendants use this nonpublic information to place hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent bets, mostly in the form of prop bets on individual player performance. The bets were placed through online sports books and also in person at casinos. The defendants relied on *** network of straw bets to place the maximum amount of bets to increase their potential profits. Most of these bets succeeded and the intended losses were in the millions of dollars. The defendants then laundered their illegal winnings in various ways, peer to peer platforms, bank wires, and simple cash exchanges. The indictment details specific examples where the defendants profited from illegal gambling and illegal betting on various NBA games about the performance of players on, among other things, the Charlotte Hornets, the Portland Trail Blazers. The Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Rangers. Each defendant in the NBA basketball gambling case has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Now I would like to turn to the other case, United States versus Aiello, the rigged poker game case. Beginning as early as 2019, the defendants in this case orchestrated *** scheme to use wireless cheating technology to run rigged poker games across the United States, including in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan. The scheme targeted victims known as quote fish who were often lured to participate in these rigged games by the chance to play alongside former professional athletes who were known as quote face cards. The so-called face cards included the defendant Chauncey Billups, who at the time of the scheme was *** former NBA player and is currently the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and also Damon Jones, *** former NBA player and coach. What the victims, the fish, didn’t know is that everybody else at the poker game from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scam. Once the game was underway, the defendants fleeced the victims out of 10s or hundreds of thousands of dollars per game. The defendants used *** variety of very sophisticated cheating technologies. Some of which were provided by other defendants in exchange for *** share of the profits from the scheme. For example, They used off the shelf shuffling machines that had been secretly altered in order to read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand. And relay that information to an off-site operator. The off-site operator. Sent the information via cell phone back to *** co-conspirator at the table and that person at the table was known as the quarterback. The quarterback then signaled secretly the information he had received from others to others at the table and together they used that information in order to uh win their games and to cheat the victims. Defendants used other cheating technologies such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is *** poker chip tray that secretly reads cards. Uh, using *** hidden camera, special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read premarked cards. And an X-ray table that could read cards face down on the table. What you see depicted on the screen right now is an example of the X-ray table that uh reveals the cards, although they are face down on the table, they can be red because of the X-ray technology. The mafia, specifically members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese organized crime families had preexisting control over non-rigged illegal poker games around New York City. As *** result, they also became involved in the rigged poker games, helping to organize the games and taking *** cut of the proceedings and working to enforce the collection of debts. The defendants laundered their proceeds, including through cash exchanges, the use of multiple shell companies, and through cryptocurrency transfers. As part of the scheme, some of the defendants and their co-conspiracy conspirators also committed acts of violence, including the gunpoint robbery of *** person in order to obtain *** rigged shuffling machine and extortions that were perpetrated against victims in order to ensure that they repay their gambling debts. Defendants who participated in the rigged poker scheme are charged with wire fraud conspiracy. Other defendants have been charged with crimes including illegal gambling, money laundering, Hobbs Act robbery, and extortions. This case demonstrates our officers unrelenting commitment to fighting the scourge of organized crime in whatever form it takes. I’d like to conclude my remarks by thanking the incredible hard work of our law enforcement partners including the FBI, Homeland Security, the NYPD, and the Waterfront Commission. I also want to thank the dedicated prosecutors who built these two cases and who are standing to my right. Benjamin Weintraub, David Bourbon, Caitlin Farrell. Michael Gibaldi Ire Su Chen and Sean Sherman. They had the assistance of paralegal specialists, Liam McNett. John Schneider, Marlene uh Boslor. Also deserving of our thanks because of their outstanding investigative work on the NBA case are FBI special agents Russell Lantier, Dominic Mariani. Amy Grosso, Shane Wilkins, and supervisory Special Agent Luke Hardison. On the rig poker game scheme, outstanding work was performed by FBI special agents Thomas Cribbin, Jeff Briola. Jonathan Corona, Alexander Silverman. Amy Campanro and supervisory Special Agent Michael Maahy as well as NYPD task officer James McCullough and from Homeland Security Supervisory Special Agent Charles Freund and from the Waterfront Commission Detective Paul Symborski. Finally, I want to know that the investigations in both cases are ongoing, and we encourage anyone with information about either scheme to please contact the FBI.

MLB, sportsbooks cap bets on individual pitches in response to pitch rigging scandal

Updated: 4:28 PM CST Nov 10, 2025

Editorial Standards ⓘ

Major League Baseball said its authorized gaming operators will cap bets on individual pitches at $200 and exclude them from parlays, a day after two Cleveland Guardians were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers.MLB said Monday the limits were agreed to by sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. betting market. The league said in a statement that pitch-level bets on outcomes of pitch velocity and of balls and strikes “present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.”“The risk on these pitch-level markets will be significantly mitigated by this new action targeted at the incentive to engage in misconduct,” the league said. “The creation of a strict bet limit on this type of bet, and the ban on parlaying them, reduces the payout for these markets and the ability to circumvent the new limit.“Cleveland pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted Sunday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches. They were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy. The indictment says they helped two unnamed gamblers in the Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of certain pitches, including some that landed in the dirt.Ortiz’s lawyer, Chris Georgalis, said in a statement that his client was innocent and “has never, and would never, improperly influence a game — not for anyone and not for anything.” A lawyer for Clase, Michael J. Ferrara, said his client “has devoted his life to baseball and doing everything in his power to help his team win. Emmanuel is innocent of all charges and looks forward to clearing his name in court.“The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was unconstitutional, allowing states to legalize sports betting.Ortiz appeared in federal court in Boston on Monday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell granted Ortiz his release on the condition he surrender his passport, restrict his travel to the Northeast U.S. and post a $500,000 bond, $50,000 of it secured. Ortiz was ordered to avoid contact with anyone who could be viewed as a victim, witness or co-defendant.Last month, more than 30 people, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were arrested for their alleged roles in a purported scheme for gamblers to use inside information.Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, issued a statement denying the allegations and Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement his client is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.”

Major League Baseball said its authorized gaming operators will cap bets on individual pitches at $200 and exclude them from parlays, a day after two Cleveland Guardians were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers.

MLB said Monday the limits were agreed to by sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. betting market. The league said in a statement that pitch-level bets on outcomes of pitch velocity and of balls and strikes “present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.”

“The risk on these pitch-level markets will be significantly mitigated by this new action targeted at the incentive to engage in misconduct,” the league said. “The creation of a strict bet limit on this type of bet, and the ban on parlaying them, reduces the payout for these markets and the ability to circumvent the new limit.”

Cleveland pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted Sunday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches. They were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy. The indictment says they helped two unnamed gamblers in the Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of certain pitches, including some that landed in the dirt.

Ortiz’s lawyer, Chris Georgalis, said in a statement that his client was innocent and “has never, and would never, improperly influence a game — not for anyone and not for anything.” A lawyer for Clase, Michael J. Ferrara, said his client “has devoted his life to baseball and doing everything in his power to help his team win. Emmanuel is innocent of all charges and looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was unconstitutional, allowing states to legalize sports betting.

Ortiz appeared in federal court in Boston on Monday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald L. Cabell granted Ortiz his release on the condition he surrender his passport, restrict his travel to the Northeast U.S. and post a $500,000 bond, $50,000 of it secured. Ortiz was ordered to avoid contact with anyone who could be viewed as a victim, witness or co-defendant.

Last month, more than 30 people, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were arrested for their alleged roles in a purported scheme for gamblers to use inside information.

Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, issued a statement denying the allegations and Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a statement his client is “not a gambler” and “looks forward to winning this fight.”