What did we expect with legalized sports betting?
Shocked, shocked.
On Thursday, the National Basketball Association was hit with a gambling scandal. New York federal prosecutor Joseph Nocella said it is “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.”
Miami Heat player Terry Rozier was arrested for allegedly sharing inside information about player injuries that bettors could use to win big. He’s also accused of telling gamblers in 2023 that he would fake an injury to leave a game early, allowing them to make sure-thing bets on the “under” in an over/under wager on Rozier’s total points in the game.
Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was charged for allegedly conspiring in a plot to lure poker players into games with marked cards and high-tech cheating, fleecing the marks out of a total of at least $7 million. The crooked card games were allegedly run by organized crime families.
Damon Jones, formerly a player and assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, was also arrested, charged with texting an unidentified gambler to relate that LeBron James would miss a game against the Milwaukee Bucks due to an injury that had not yet been publicly reported. “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!,” he allegedly wrote in the message.
More than two dozen others were also charged in connection with the gambling schemes.
States have been able to legalize gambling on sports since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting. According to the American Gaming Association, a trade group for the legal gambling industry, commercial sports betting in America brought in $13.
