Former NBA All Star Gilbert Arenas has been arrested on federal charges for allegedly running an illegal gambling operation. Arenas, along with five others, has been indicted for hosting high-stakes poker games at his California mansion. It seems he’s been trying to run a different kind of playbook since leaving the court.
The indictment alleges that Arenas’s team of co-conspirators operated the illegal business from September 2021 to July 2022. They allegedly charged a fee from each poker pot and even employed staff, including chefs, valets, and armed security guards. The operation was a real full court press.
This isn’t the first time Arenas has been involved in a card-related controversy. Back in 2009, he was suspended from the NBA after bringing guns into the locker room following a dispute over a card game, a move that earned him a significant suspension.
Arenas now faces a different kind of game changer. If convicted on all charges which include conspiracy and making false statements to federal investigators he could be looking at a maximum sentence of five years for each charge. This is a much bigger time-out than he’s ever had to face before.
