Former NFL player Lawrence Taylor appeared in a 2004 episode of ‘The Sopranos’ at a card game although I suspect using a noted sports player as a ‘roper’ for con games has been going on for decades prior to that.
If a player accepts an “honorarium” to attend a rigged game, even a secret honorium, he might be innocent of cheating. It’s harder to excuse him if he hosted a rigged game because he must have known that the appartus being installed was not fair or honest.