In 2024, Americans legally wagered nearly $150 billion on sports, up from $120 billion in 2023. As more and more states legalize sports betting, the dollar value of total bets will continue to climb.
As sports betting has exploded in America, so have the number of betting scandals. According to the Associated Press, there have been 13 major scandals involving players, coaches, employees, and family members of professional sports teams, and several more prosecutions involving colleges.
The latest stain on professional sports involves an NBA player and a Hall of Fame coach, both involved in seedy deals with professional gamblers.
"Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested Thursday as part of a federal investigation into illegal betting activities, federal law enforcement officials said during a news conference in New York," reports The Athletic.
That federal investigation has snared more than 30 people who were involved in sports betting, as well as an illegal poker operation that used high-tech equipment to fleece players out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Rozier was accused of telling members of an illegal betting ring that he was going to leave a game early, thus keeping his stats down. This allowed the gamblers to wager on a "prop" or "proposition" bet, which allows a player to bet on a specific outcome, such as the number of points a player will get or even how many fouls he'll commit. Knowing Rozier would leave a game early allowed his betting partners to clean up on prop bets.
Billups, currently the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was also arrested, as was a former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach, Damon Jones. Billups was part of the illegal poker ring, serving as a "face," who knowingly lured gamblers to the table using his name as an NBA coach and former star.
"They are also alleged to have used poker chip tray analyzers, special contact lenses or eyeglasses that can read pre-marked cards, and an X-ray table that can read cards face down on the table," reports USA Today.
The alleged sports rigging operation will send shockwaves through the world of American professional sports, which has embraced and reaped the business opportunities from the rapid expansion of sports betting across the country. Today’s developments call to mind a warning from Bill Bradley, a former U.S. senator and New York Knicks star who was a driving force behind the 1992 law that effectively banned sports betting. “I just don’t think it will be controlled,” he said in 2024. “I think it will pervade the culture. I think there will be a scandal.”
According to The Athletic, Rozier had been under investigation by NBC in a 2023 NBA game "for possibly manipulating his performance. "
I can guarantee that Rozier is not the only active player passing on confidential player information to gamblers to help them with prop bets. It probably doesn't even feel like "cheating" if an athlete with a gambling problem tips off a gambler about his or another player's condition or other inside information. If the gambler forgives some or all of his debt, a player can justify his crime as just a minor indiscretion.
While there's little data on pro athletes with gambling problems, "a 2023 National Council on Problem Gambling report on European athletes found that 8% of professional athletes exhibited problem gambling behavior, which is roughly three times the rate in the general adult population." As gambling continues to explode, so too will the scandals that threaten to ruin the integrity of all sports.
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