Chauncey Billups (Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images)

Much has been reported since Chauncey Billups was arrested by the FBI this week.

The former Detroit Pistons star, now the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was taken into federal custody along with 33 others, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Damon Jones, as part of the bureau’s probe into illegal gambling.

Billups and Jones are accused of using their statuses as former pro athletes to lure victims to tables on which the Mafia rigged games.

According to the FBI, the Bonanno, Genovese, Gambino, and Lucchese families were heavily involved in the operation and used X-ray tables plus other technology to con players out of millions.

One of the tables used has surfaced in online photos, while a video of X-ray glasses used to see through marked cards has also gone viral.

String Of Text Messages Suggests Unlucky Gamblers Were Treated To Violence If They Did Not Pay On Time

Chips are seen at a three-card poker table (Photo credit should read LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s since been reported that victims who did not pay sums owed were threatened and even physically assaulted by mob henchmen.

One such character, Zhen Hu of Brooklyn, New York, also known as Jonathan Chan or Jonathan Hu, sent text messages to an alleged victim listed as John Doe #5 after he failed to pay.

“Yeah? You not gonna pay me?” he allegedly asked in one message. “Alright bet.”

“Watch what’s good now. You’ve been running your mouth unchecked,” another read.

According to the indictment, Hu punched the victim and confirmed it himself in another text sent to someone else.

“I punched somebody in the face the other day, s**** unraveling quick,” he wrote.

It’s noted that a co-defendant, Thomas Gelardo, assaulted John Doe #5 after Hu demanded to see the victim at an NYC address.

“What you did was cowardly and ridiculous,” the victim wrote him around a year later. “And then u sent a bunch of goons to solve your problems.”

Another victim, identified as John Doe #6, was also extorted, and a text message sent to Hu showed him claiming to be sick with the flu, which left him hospitalized and unable to pay.

“If f***o is seen anywhere else in the next two days you do what you have to to get the money Seth,” Hu allegedly texted another defendant, Seth Trustman, about Doe #6. “I’m so sick of this.”

He later suggested that Trustman had done enough to convince the victim to pay.

“Seth did much more. He gave him a little nudge,” he wrote. “A small but big threat.”

Meanwhile, Billups has been arraigned in Oregon following his arrest. His bond amount remains undisclosed following charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.