Operation Royal Flush

The sprawling illegal gambling case announced by feds names 34 defendants in total. Top names are former pro basketball players Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones. NBA coaches Billups and Jones were ‘Face Cards’ in the games who were brought in as “well-known former professional athletes” to attract the victims in the cheating scheme.

Others include a dozen men the Feds say are members or associates of New York’s Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Lucchese crime families.

Ernest ‘Ernie’ Aiello is a member of the Bonanno crime family.

Gambino mobster Lee Fama was described as a capo in 2012.

Nicholas ‘Fat Nick’ Minucci is a Gambino associate.

Matthew ‘The Wrestler’ Daddino is a Genovese made man.

Thomas ‘Tommy Juice’ Gelardo is with the Bonanno family.

Ammar ‘Flapper Poker’ Awawdeh, Zhen ‘Scruli’ Hu and Robert ‘Black Rob’ Stroud, helped organize the games, and Tony ‘Black Tony’ Goodson and Shane ‘Sugar’ Hennen, worked to supply the marks.

Mafiosi and NBA stars used a combination of high-tech and old-school gambling tricks to swindle high rollers out of $7m. Card shuffling machines that had been tampered with took center stage in the con, with mobsters rigging them to broadcast cards to an operator outside the game room. A poker table was rigged with a x-ray machine to read cards.