The FBI has torn into a gambling scandal that links NBA players, the Mafia, and poker… and Glenn couldn’t be happier?! Glenn and Stu explain this scandal and why it reminds them of the good ol’ days “when crime made sense” and pizza tasted incredible…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: You know, can I talk to you a little bit about the basketball gambling scandal?
STU: I'm sorry.
GLENN: I know. I know.
STU: Wait. What? You know about the basketball gambling scandal?
GLENN: I do. I do. I know a little about it. Don't know the names of the people involved.
STU: Hall of Famer, no big deal.
GLENN: Yeah. So, but I have listened to this story. Ask one of the things that caught my attention was how sophisticated it was. You know, x-ray tables that could read the cards from underneath.
STU: Yeah. This is the illegal poker game of this scenario.
GLENN: And the contacts where they could read the back of the cards. All of these different things. I thought, that was kind of cool. Kind of James Bondy. Kind of interested in that. Then it got to the point where it was four on out of the five crime families. And the newscast I heard was it was the Italian Mafia.
STU: Uh-huh.
GLENN: And, you know, Genevieve's crime family, blah, blah, blah. And I actually got to the end of that story and I'm like, oh. Do you remember when we just had the five crime families? They were killing each other in New York?
Oh, it's like my childhood coming back. Oh, I understand this news!
STU: Yeah. Warm and fuzzy memories of the mob. Right!
GLENN: What? Yeah.
It was like when crime made sense.
(laughter)
STU: I like that take. That makes me feel a lot better about it.
GLENN: That's what I'm here for today.
STU: It feels antiquated. Quaint.
GLENN: It's old-fashioned. Somebody came in and robbed all the sarsaparilla from the mountain.
(laughter)
STU: I like that.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: That's the way to go with this, I think.
GLENN: It really is. It really is.
STU: It does feel. You know, you think about these players. Some of them have made hundreds of millions of dollars at their careers.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: And they're worried about illegal poker games and, you know, a couple of hundred thousand dollars betting on the under, Ontario Rozier assists or something.
GLENN: That part. Did you ever see any of those games?
Because the way I heard it. This is the way I interpreted it.
STU: Sure.
GLENN: That they got hurt, and then they had to leave early, or whatever.
STU: There was -- yeah. The main one they highlighted was a guy who basically told people in advance, he was going to leave the game early.
So everybody -- at the under. They scored less -- fewer points, and then he left after nine minutes of the game. So he didn't hit any of those.
GLENN: Right. So did he get hurt?
Did he like, ow, ow. Ow.
Was it obvious?
STU: I think it was a faked injury. Yeah.
GLENN: Was it obvious?
STU: I don't remember watching that game. There have been highlights released on him.
Just to give you a background quickly on this player. Very good player for many years. And over the last two years, his entire player has mysteriously fallen apart. It was like outside of the gambling, like what happened to this guy? Terry Rozier was, like, a good player for a long time. Twenty points a game type of guy, and then couldn't even get on the court.
Was traded for a number one pick, and then all of a sudden, just fell apart. And some of the highlights of games of his are so bad. Like, there are plays that I would see when I was coaching my 7-year-old's basketball games.
Like, they are horrible. Like, you would never see an NBA player make. And the insinuation now is, it had to be something related to the game. Though, in the indictment, I don't think it was charged like that particular game he had done anything with.
But he looked so bad, that either something was really going on with him physically. Or he -- you know, allegedly was gambling.
GLENN: And what was the NBA's tie to the card table?
STU: So the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, Chauncey Billups.
GLENN: Portland. I was happy with the Italian Mafia.
STU: Hall of Fame player. Right.
GLENN: And now you have to remind me, Portland.
STU: Right. So he was playing. Fascinating part of this, he was playing. They had set up these illegal poker games. And, like, a lot of people are like, I can't believe now that they made gambling legal, all these scandals are happening. Let me just remind you of the word "illegal" in illegal poker games.
Part of this was done on legal betting surfaces on the sport stuff, but the poker is illegal.
This all still happened. Okay?
So you're not allowed. What's funny is, they're not really getting in trouble for having illegal poker games. They're having trouble for cheating at illegal poker games.
Which is the technology you were mentioning. What they did was say, hey. We're going to have these underground poker games. Some of them underground in Vegas.
By the way, you can play legal poker games in Vegas.
Don't go to illegal poker games, when you're getting this type of pitch, which was, hey. Come. You'll sit next to Hall of Fame players. Former players. They're all big money. And they're not even top-notch players. Who knows? They might lose.
GLENN: And everyone was in it, at the table, except the fish.
STU: Right. A couple of fish that would come in. You did read this indictment, and you're using poker terminology. It's impressive.
But like, so these guys would come in. Some of them were professional poker players. And, of course, their motivation for being there, we should note was to take advantage of the stupid players that would do dumb things during these games, in a legal way.
GLENN: Was this -- were these the NBA players that were kind of muscled into it because of their poker debts?
STU: I think there are some stories about that, in the -- in the indictment, where they -- the players had debts, so they had to come and participate in the illegal games to essentially pay off their Mafia gambling debts that were unrelated.
STU: Now, of course, the stuff has happened forever. The fascinating part of this --
GLENN: No, the mob does not exist.
STU: The mob does not -- if the mob does exist, I want them to know, I love them. I'm a huge fan of the Mafia.
STU: You're a huge fan, if they existed. But they don't.
GLENN: But they don't exist, so let's not even talk about them.
STU: One fascinating part about this.
GLENN: You can tell we've lived in Connecticut for a while.
STU: The pizza is delicious.
GLENN: It's really good. It's really good.
STU: It's really good. So the -- there are now clips being unearthed. I saw one yesterday of a 2023 clip of a professional poker player saying all of this was going on.
This is now two years ago.
Saying, he knew people who would go to these games. And they would play against Chauncey Phillips. It was a guy you mentioned. And obviously, you were cheating.
Because they would go all in on combinations of cards that you would never go all in on. And they would just win every time.
And so it was really obvious to the professionals who were going there, saying, oh, I see what's happening here.
And they would stop going.
This is like a known thing.
Now, it's a comical situation, when it comes to the poker stuff.
Because, you know, again, you're talking. Chauncey Phillips made nine figures in his career. He's not a guy who certainly is short on money. Some people --
GLENN: Well, apparently he was. If he had gambling debts to the mob.
STU: Well, I don't think he was the guy in that particular. I could be wrong on that.
There's a lot -- multiple people involved in this. I may have missed up the details. Some people can gamble $100 million, it's certainly possible.
GLENN: Uh-huh.
STU: If you're an addict, right? It doesn't matter. You talk about alcoholism. Right? If you're a big alcoholic, people would say, wait. You've got all this to live for. Why would you ruin this with alcoholic?
You're addicted. You're having a real problem. They would call it a disease. It's a serious issue. It's not easy to drop off.
GLENN: What you know makes me stop drinking? Mob threats. That's when I'm like, I think I have a problem.
STU: If they existed.
GLENN: If they existed. And they wouldn't threat -- we know -- for anyone in this fictional Costa Nostra thing, we know you wouldn't threaten anyone. The pizza is great.
STU: It is fantastic. The best sauce you'll ever have. You'll ever have.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
STU: So it's a pretty amazing story.
And, you know, it is not as bad I think as previous gambling stories, where referees were actually fixing games. Like, that is a much, much worse statement than what we've seen so far on this. But it's a pretty big story. I'm impressed, Glenn.
You're aware of it. You seem to have actual information about it. What's going on with you?
We used to have conversations about sports, that would just be non-stop comedy, because you were so embarrassing about your knowledge.
GLENN: Well, this wasn't really -- this is a mob story. This is a mob story. I have zero interest in the NBA. Zero.
STU: Okay. So this is basically your version of a mob movie?
GLENN: Uh-huh. That's as close as I can get to a mob movie today, and I love mob movies.
Anyway, mainly I like watching mob movies. Well, I mean, I like the characters in them, but I really like the food. You know what I mean?
You know, you get to eat like that. I don't know. Is it worth it? Is that blood or tomato sauce? I don't know.
STU: As someone who grew up near New Haven, Connecticut, and you worked at New Haven, Connecticut for years.
Like, there's a calculation made by the community, that they're kind of fine with the mob, if we can have the pizza. We're actually, the pizza is so good. You guys can commit a certain number of crimes.
GLENN: Can I tell you something? That's the only part of New Haven though, that makes any sense.
STU: Yeah. That's pretty much true.
GLENN: New Haven is just a crap hole. It is. Come on. It is. Not the surrounding areas.
New Haven itself, crap hole.
STU: It has some bad situations around. Yes.
GLENN: It starts at Yale. And then goes downhill. Okay? Except Wooster Street. This whole area, completely, not run by the mob.
And it is the safest place you could -- you could -- you could take a woman and have her take all of her clothes off. And take 100-dollar bills to her. And say, walk down this street at 11 o'clock at night. And she's totally safe! Totally safe.
This is like one of the mob bosses are like, you know what, I think maybe we've got to bring it -- you know.
Otherwise, there's no crime happening there.
STU: And we should -- all of this outside of the pizza quality is a legend. And we don't have any --
GLENN: I'm a fiction writer. I'm a fiction writer.
STU: Not the pizza. The pizza is that good. Anyone who knows pizza. You'll hear a lot of people who say, New York pizza. Oh, New York style pizza. That doesn't mean you know anything about pizza. If they say New Haven pizza style --
GLENN: It's truly the best pizza out there. But I tell you, on that particular street, do not ask anything about the pizza.
And if it -- because it's brick oven. And so, you know, it will come a little burned. That's the way it comes.
STU: Supposed to come.
GLENN: Do not say anything about it.
STU: Can I have white crust?
Don't do that.
GLENN: They'll just take it away from you. They look at you. Then they look at the picture of Frank Sinatra on the wall. And they look at you, and you're dead. Just leave!
STU: It's like a suit Nazi situation a little bit. It can be.
GLENN: It really is.





