The NBA revealed on Tuesday that the third Emirates NBA Cup semifinals and championship will take place at T-Mobile Arena on December 13 and 16. NBAEvents.com/cup is where you can get tickets). With Sin City serving as a crucial operational base, the in-season tournament is making its third annual return to Las Vegas amid a cloud of fallout from a large federal investigation into illicit gambling involving NBA players and organized crime figures.

The House of Cards

Just a few days into the regular season, on October 23, the FBI made 34 arrests in 11 states. Among them were former NBA guard Damon Jones and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, who were both accused of being part of a Las Vegas-based poker cheating operation supported by four New York criminal families: Bonanno, Gambino, Lucchese, and Genovese.

According to court records, victims have lost at least $7.15 million since 2019 in games played in opulent suites and private villas at the Wynn, Bellagio, Cosmopolitan, and off-Strip residences. Billups and Jones, according to the prosecution, were used as "face cards" to entice affluent marks into games using shufflers that were altered to scan and send card data to off-site spotters via earpieces, infrared contact lenses, X-ray tables, and poker chip analyzers.

Mafia enforcers once stole a prototype shuffler from a hotel parking lot in Las Vegas and collected debts, sometimes at gunpoint. Jones allegedly used cryptocurrency and dummy corporations to launder gains before being apprehended at an unidentified Strip casino.

The Negative Tip-Offs

Jones, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and four other people were charged with wire fraud and money laundering in a different NBA prop-betting conspiracy. They are responsible for providing sports-betting syndicates with confidential information, such as injury reports and lineup choices.

During a game between the Charlotte Hornets (Rozier's team at the time) and New Orleans Pelicans in Charlotte on March 23, 2023, a significant occurrence took place. More than $200K was wagered on Rozier's "under" prop lines for points, rebounds, and assists after he allegedly told colleagues about his intended early departure due to a fake foot injury, according to the prosecution.

After just nine minutes of action, Rozier finished with two assists, five points, and four rebounds. According to reports, the wagers brought in tens of thousands of dollars, which were then sent to his Florida residence.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver promised complete cooperation with the investigation, calling both situations "deeply disturbing."

Complete Court Press

This year's Emirates Cup will begin with group play from October 31 to November 28, when all 30 league teams will play four games on "cup nights," according to an NBA news release. Eight teams—six group winners and one wild card from each conference—will move on to the "knockout rounds," which are made up of single-elimination matches in the semifinals, championship, and quarterfinals (December 9–10 in NBA team markets).

Even though the league has been planning to hold its highlight event in Las Vegas since at least July 2025, the decision to proceed with the series in light of the controversy is expected to receive criticism, particularly as the issue continues to develop in the coming weeks.

Sportsbook integrations are crucial to the league's $76 billion, 11-year media agreements, as prop markets surged following the US Supreme Court's 2018 decision to overturn a decades-old government ban on sports betting.