Former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter set to plead guilty to illegal betting

Former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter is scheduled to plead guilty Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court to a felony charge related to an illegal betting scheme.

The NBA said Porter placed more than a dozen bets on basketball games, including in which he bet the Raptors would lose. He received a lifetime ban from the league in April.

His lawyer has said Porter became addicted to gambling and had amassed large gambling debts.

Porter was encouraged by his accomplices to clear those debts by withdrawing from certain games prematurely to make sure bets on his performance were successful, prosecutors say.

A league investigation found he tipped off other gamblers about his health and then falsely claimed he was sick so he could stop playing in at least one game, creating a windfall for those gamblers who placed parlor bets that he would underperform.

Four others have been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.