The lawyer representing Jontay Porter, the Toronto Raptors forward who was given a lifetime ban by the NBA for sports betting, said his client was “in over his head” with a gambling addiction.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Porter’s attorney, Jeff Jensen, said the Raptors forward is undergoing treatment and is cooperating with authorities.
“Jontay is a good young man with a strong faith that will get him through this. He was in over his head due to a gambling addiction,” the statement said. “He is undergoing treatment and has fully cooperated with law enforcement.”
The Porter scandal has now seen a fourth person arrested as 32-year-old Ammar Awawdeh turned himself in on Friday. Three co-defendants were arrested earlier this week, including Long Phi Pham, who was apprehended while trying to board a flight to Australia with a one-way ticket at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. He reportedly had $12,000 in cash, two checks totaling $80,000, betting slips and three cell phones.
A court complaint accuses Awawdeh of pressuring an NBA player, identified as “Player 1”, to pay off gambling debts by leaving games early, which would guarantee payouts for those betting on Porter in who underperforms in matches.
Awawdeh used an encrypted messaging app to say he was “forcing” the player to do so and told “Player 1” to “take a screenshot of this,” according to the complaint.
Awawdeh was charged and released on $100,000 bond and placed under house arrest with an ankle monitor.
Porter is not named in the complaint and is not currently facing charges.
The defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud but have yet to enter pleas.
The NBA’s investigation found that Porter intentionally limited his participation in the Raptors’ March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings specifically to influence the outcome of one or more bets on his performance. Against the Brooklyn Nets, Porter claimed he felt sick after just three minutes of play.
The NBA also found that Porter had disclosed confidential information about his health status to “an individual he knew to be an NBA gambler” prior to the game. Another individual associated with Porter also bet that Porter would underperform on March 20 as part of an $80,000 parlay the bettor placed with an online sportsbook.
From January through March 2024, Porter placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using someone else’s betting account while traveling with the Raptors and the Raptors’ G League team. These bets ranged from $15 to $22,000 for a total of $54,094. The total payout from these bets was $76,059, resulting in a profit of $21,965. None of the bets involved a game in which Porter played, but he did bet on the Raptors to lose as part of three different parlay bets. All three bets lost.
