BAD BETS: Three current and former NBA players including the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers were swept up in federal indictments yesterday involving insider information on basketball betting and rigged poker games run by New York Mafia families.

In all, more than 30 people in 11 states were indicted, many of them described as members of organized crime with such nicknames as “Spanish G,” “Flappy Poker,” “The Wrestler,” and “Black Tony.”

One case accuses Terry Rozier, a guard for the Miami Heat, and Damon Jones, a former player and coach, of trading on inside information such as player injuries, illnesses, and coach decisions giving bettors an edge. The charges say the scheme affected the outcome of at least one game.

The other charges accuse Chauncey Billups, head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, of participating in rigged poker games organized by Mafia families that cheated unwitting gamblers out of at least $7 million. Billups, who’s been head coach for five years, and Rozier have been suspended.

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That second case, “Operation Royal Flush,” is fascinating. The indictment claims that targets were lured into poker games to rub elbows with sports celebrities like Billups and Jones only to be cheated by technology like shuffling machines that could read cards as well as eyeglasses and contact lenses that could read marked cards.

Everyone at the table was in on it except the mark who they called “the fish.”

The indictment says that the shuffling machines, for instance, read cards in the deck, predicted which player had the best poker hand, and relayed “via interstate wires” to an off-site operator who then gave that information by cellphone to a member of the cheating team seated at the table. They even had a table that could read cards through the felt.

Prosecutors said one victim lost $1.8 million in rigged poker games.

DRUG WAR: President Trump said he will not seek Congressional approval to keep blowing up suspected drug boats off South America while also threatening to conduct strikes on land.

“I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK?” Trump said to reporters. “We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead.” The US has killed at least 37 people so far.

The Senate is expected to vote next week on a bipartisan resolution to bar the United States from hitting inside Venezuela without explicit authorization by Congress. The US has not formally declared war since World War II … even Vietnam and Iraq were undeclared.

“The cartels are waging war against America and just like I promised in the campaign, we are waging war against them,” Trump said in the state dining room in the presence of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence; and Attorney General Pam Bondi. He said, “The land is going to be next.”

THE EAST WING: On orders coming from the West Wing, the East Wing of the White House is now gone, to the dismay of historic preservationists and Congressional Democrats.

President Trump claims absolute authority to replace the East Wing with a giant ballroom paid for with private money donated by his political patrons. Asked why the project has grown from alteration to demolition of the wing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “The plans changed when the president heard counsel from the architects and the construction companies, who said that in order for this East Wing to be modern and beautiful for many, many years to come, for it to be a truly strong and stable structure, this phase one that we’re now in was necessary.”

BATTLE LINES: North Carolina has become the first swing state to re-draw its Congressional district lines to favor Republicans. Party leaders want to change the lines to give them one more seat in Congress, their 11^th out of 14.

They would re-draw the state’s only swing district that has been represented by Black lawmakers for decades.

Traditionally redistricting is done every 10 years following the US census, but Republicans in several states are trying to squeeze out Democrats who need to gain three seats to take the House of Representatives next year.

THE REGIME:

— President Trump announced that he’s ending all trade negotiations with Canada because of a Canadian television ad quoting Ronald Reagan about the negative effects of tariffs.

— As many as 20 people have died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement this year, the highest number since 2004, when 32 people held by ICE died. About 60,000 people are being held.

— As the Trump administration moves to increase oil drilling to bring down energy prices, they’re moving forward with building a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a pristine stretch of coastal wildlands in southwest Alaska.

The beds of eelgrass in Izembek are a feeding spot for emperor geese and other birds while the wetlands are home to caribou and brown bears. Interior Secretary Doug Burghum said it’s a tradeoff … people in the remote village of King Cove will have a road to drive to get medical help instead of taking a boat. But that’s not why they are building the road.

At the same time they try to increase oil production, prices jumped after President Trump imposed sanctions on two Russian oil companies.

— President Trump’s disapproval rating in an average of polls has hit 53 percent. His approval is 43 percent.

THE SPIN RACK: New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was excused from a corruption indictment by the Trump administration, endorsed New York’s disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to replace him in next month’s election.

BELOW THE FOLD: Comedian Michael Kosta said about President Trump last night that, “This guy has been taking 15 years to give us a health care plan, but in three and a half days, he’s demolished half the White House.”

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