Almost 10 years ago, Rob Gorodetsky foretold the recent scandals that have hit the NCAA and NBA.
“You just pay college kids, inner-city college kids who don’t have any money,” Gorodetsky said. “Give them 10 grand. That’s like a million dollars to them. You know what I’m saying? Have a bad game, here’s 10 grand. I don’t see how they wouldn’t do it.”
Gorodetsky was speaking to USA Today in 2017, a year before the PASPA ruling that legalized sports betting nationwide. His profile on X still highlights the article, boasting of wagering $27 million on sports that year.
High Stakes Wagers Alert Authorties
It was his high-stakes bets that attracted the attention of authorities and led to his indictment along with Malik Beasley and former NBA player Ed Davis.
“Rob you making insane amount stop it. You move the lines every time,” Ernesto Plascencia, a fellow gambler indicted in the case, wrote to Gorodetsky after an alleged fix in March 2024.
NBA player agent Paulo Zamorano, also indicted, complained that gamblers were “betting 30-40K a game. Movin the lines.”
All defendants in the case have pleaded not guilty. Gorodestky previously revealed how he’d avoid detection in a point-shaving scheme. “I’d spread it around Vegas, 20 grand a place,” he said. “They’d never notice. I wouldn’t beat one casino badly. I’d take a little piece from every single (sports) book.”
Gorodetsky’s Connection to Damon Jones
The case is separate from the NBA sports betting scandal that led to the indictments of Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones. Rozier has also pleaded not guilty to allegations that he exited games early to ensure winning bets on his prop markets.
Jones, however, accepted a plea deal in the case. He pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in the sports betting case and the rigged poker case, which also implicated Chauncey Billups and several mafia family members. Earlier this month, a further 12 defendants accepted plea deals.
Gorodetsky was not named in either of those indictments, but has a long-standing connection to Jones. In the 2017 interview, he said Jones “used to text me every day and ask me who I like.”
At that time, Jones served as the assistant coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, where LeBron James was playing. Jones and Gorodetsky were seen together several times during the NBA’s summer league held in Las Vegas in 2017, when Gorodetsky said he was betting up to $150,000 a day.
“I would take my knowledge and my gut instinct and bet the best numbers,’’ he said. “I just kept pounding them. (The casinos) started lowering my limits because the house has no idea who’s going to win in summer league. They don’t know anybody who’s playing.”
In the recent indictment, Jones is alleged to have used his position working as a coach to feed inside information to bettors about lineups before matches. In one instance, he allegedly texted bettors that James would sit out a match, leading to profits for gamblers wagering against the Lakers.
When pleading guilty, he apologized to the NBA, admitting to using insider knowledge to make money from sportsbooks.
Beasley & Jones Had Financial Problems
Despite earning millions of dollars in their NBA careers, Jones and Beasley both had financial problems as a result of gambling. The indictment says Davis suggested the match-fixing scheme to Beasley as a way to get out of his debts. Prosecutors say that Beasley “accumulated multi-million dollar gambling losses.”
Prosecutors also revealed messages sent by Jones showing his desperation to get paid for participating in alleged rigged poker games.
“GOD really blessed me that u have action for me cause I needed it today bad,” he wrote in one message to organizers of the games.
Gorodetsky Also Suffered Huge Gambling Losses
Like Jones and Beasley, Gorodetsky has had mixed fortunes in his career. While earning a reputation in Vegas as a high-stakes gambler, he admits to suffering big losses.
“The thing that gives me the edge is there’s no fear of losing,’’ Gorodetsky said on a night he was losing big. “We lost $100,000 over here, we lost $50,000 over here. You’re still going to see me here tomorrow. You’re going to see me here the next day. We’re going to be in the game.’’
Peter Tran, his casino host at the Aria, said he has lost more than $1 million playing blackjack.
“I know for a fact Rob is losing his ass,” said fellow gambler Dave Oancea, also known as ‘Vegas Dave.’ “If someone is born into $10 million, anybody can purchase $200,000 tickets. It doesn’t mean you’re good. If you have money or you’re laundering money or you’re a drug dealer or your parents gave you $1 billion, that doesn’t mean you’re a good or bad handicapper. That just means you have access to funds.’’
Gorodestky has not always been given funds to bankroll his betting. In 2020, prosecutors in Illinois charged him with wire fraud for stealing nearly $10 million from his ex-girlfriend’s father, as reported by New York Magazine.
He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to 28 months in prison. A little over a year after he was released from prison, the alleged Beasley plot began.
