Ex-NBA Star Gilbert Arenas Arrested for Allegedly Operating ‘High-Stakes Illegal Poker Games’

Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was arrested Wednesday for allegedly running an illegal gambling ring at his Los Angeles mansion. 

Arenas pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business, as well as making false statements to federal investigators. 

He has been released on a $50,000 bond, with a trial set for September 23 this year. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a statement noting that, “Arenas rented out an Encino mansion he owned for the purpose of hosting high-stakes illegal poker games”.

The games appear to have been run by Yevgeni Gershman, a suspected organized crime figure from Israel. Gershman, along with others, hired women, chefs, valets, and armed security guards to facilitate the games, and collected a rake on the high-stakes gambling. 

Arenas’s Longstanding History of Ties to Gambling

The news that Arenas allowed high-stakes poker games to take place at his LA mansion comes after a long history of ties with gambling. 

“There’s always a line between being a prankster and going too far, and I was always on that line,” Arenas said in an Untold documentary on Netflix. 

The documentary detailed the 2009 incident when Arenas and Washington Wizards teammate Javaris Crittenton pulled guns on each other in their locker room after a card game. 

Both players were suspended for the rest of the season by the NBA, while Arenas was ordered to serve two years of probation, complete 400 hours of community service, and pay a $5,000 fine

He moved on to two more teams before retiring in 2012, while Crittenton never played in the NBA again. In 2011, Crittenton was charged with manslaughter for shooting and killing a bystander. He was released in 2023. 

From facilitating card games in the locker room, Arenas has now been arrested for doing the same at his LA mansion.

‘Gil’s Arena’ Went from Poker to Underdog-Sponsored Podcast

It is alleged that the illegal poker games operated from September 2021 to July 2022 at Arenas’s Woodland Hills mansion. Arenas subsequently created the Gil’s Arena podcast, which promoted legal gambling through its sponsor Underdog from the same mansion. 

Underdog Fantasy collaborated with Arenas and Josiah Johnson to launch the podcast in 2023, and it has been highly successful. 

Like Arenas, Underdog has also had to toe the line between what is acceptable as legal gambling. The company was forced to pay a $17.5 million fine in New York for allowing games that the state said violated its gambling laws. It also recently pulled its against-the-house pick’em DFS games from California after the Attorney General declared them illegal. 

Underdog announced a multi-year contract extension with Arenas in January of this year, as the podcast had attracted a large audience. 

This year, it has been the largest digital basketball show in the US and ranks as the fifth‑largest daily sports show across all platforms. It averages 275,000 viewers per episode and has amassed over 500 million YouTube views.

With Arenas in the dock, it may well spell the end of the partnership, despite Underdog facing similar legal troubles. 

Other NBA Stars Face Gambling Investigations

In addition to Arenas, several other NBA players have been implicated in gambling scandals recently. Marcus Morris was arrested this week and denied bond for allegedly writing bad checks worth $265,000 at two Las Vegas casinos.

Jontay Porter is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to charges of wire fraud. Porter faces a lengthy prison sentence for feeding information about his injury status to bettors, which allowed them to profit on his prop bets. 

Malik Beasley and Terry Rozier are also under investigation over suspicious betting activity on their prop bets. In Beasley’s case, the highlighted bets were on him to record fewer than 2.5 rebounds in a game where he went on to record six. 

Rozier, who the NBA initially cleared, still faces an ongoing federal investigation for bets placed on the unders in his prop markets. The bets were paid out at a Mississippi casino after he exited the game in question after 10 minutes, citing a foot injury. 

The numerous legal cases demonstrate that NBA players must be careful not to go too far in their links with gambling, despite its prevalence in locker rooms and games.