Disgraced Toronto Raptors player had bet millions on Russian ping-pong

Former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter is coming clean about how his gambling addiction got him banned from the NBA, and the details and amounts are hard to even believe.

In a gripping tell-all interview with The New Yorker, Porter delved into how he started gambling and how quickly it led to him having debt with the wrong people.

Porter said his gambling habit started in September 2021, while he was out of the NBA recovering from a knee injury. He had a few friends over to watch an early-season NFL game, which subsequently led him to place a six-figure wager on the Kansas City Chiefs using online betting platform FanDuel.

From there, the former Raptors forward found football games were too infrequent and instead turned to professional table tennis, which ran every 15 minutes.

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"It can take weeks to make money from a stock trade, but a ping-pong match, it takes 15 minutes," said Porter.

"It's exhilarating because in your mind, your whole life rides on how good a serve this guy has. It drives you insane, quite literally."

Porter told The New Yorker that he would consistently stay up past midnight to bet "hundreds of thousands" of dollars on Russian table tennis. It even reached the point where he was once on a three-day, ping-pong bender where he both won (and lost) more than a million dollars.

The 27-year-old was later banned from FanDuel after PayPal notified the sportsbook that Porter was gambling with overdrawn deposits. So naturally, he went somewhere else that would allow him to bet on credit.

That led Porter to get involved with an associate of New York's Gambino crime family. 

Porter only played 26 total games with the Raptors before his contract was effectively terminated when the NBA banned him. (Isaiah J. Downing/USA TODAY Sports)

At that time, Porter was back in the NBA and a member of the Toronto Raptors during the 2023-24 season. In an effort to pay off debt that was owed, Porter was allegedly asked to manipulate his on-court performance, such as taking a dive in a fight.

The first was against the Los Angeles Clippers on Jan. 26, 2024, but his acquaintances did not bet enough given the sportsbook's limits. So they convinced Porter to do it again on March 20, 2024, against the Sacramento Kings.

An NBA investigation then found these two instances and barred him from the league for life three weeks after his March 20 bet.

Porter is still playing professional basketball, just not in the NBA.

He signed with the Seattle Super Hawks in the USBL in February 2026 as he awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to wire fraud.

He's also turning his pain into purpose by opening a charity called the Open Gate Project that helps with treatment for individuals battling gambling addictions.