Report: NFL Hall Of Famer Gates Allegedly Hosted Mob Poker Games Like Billups

Former Chargers Hall of Fame tight end Antonio Gates hosted and played in a rigged poker game like the ones that led to the federal indictment of Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones, according to a report by reporter/podcaster Pablo Torre.

Torre, host of the Pablo Finds Out podcast, reported Sunday that the games involving Gates were organized by Curtis Meeks, who was indicted Thursday as one of 34 snared in separate illegal sports betting and poker investigations. Torre later claimed that numerous professional athletes played in these mafia-run games, including retired NBA Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett and Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue at a game in Las Vegas in 2019. Torre did not confirm that Lue played at a table with Billups, with whom he is reportedly close friends.

More alleged poker participants named

Joseph Nocella Jr., United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said during a press conference announcing the indictments Thursday that “well-known former NBA players and former professional athletes acted as ‘face cards’ to lure unsuspecting victims to high-stakes poker games, where they were then at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contact lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big.”

The New York Post reported last week that a Texas poker player had been bilked out of more than $1 million from a game featuring an NFL player as a lure.

Billups was released Thursday after appearing before Judge Jolie Russo in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon. He is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

Gates, 45, has not yet commented publically, and there has been no legal action against him. FBI Director Kash Patel, however, said on Thursday that the investigation was “very much ongoing.”

Gates was a five-time All-Pro, an eight-time Pro Bowler from 2003-2018, and a member of an All-Decade Team with the Chargers in San Diego.