Professional-sports leagues would like you to believe they have the gambling problem under control. They have hired high-tech security companies to monitor wagers at a granular level and implemented sophisticated algorithmic systems to spot unusual gambling activity, ensuring that no athlete would be foolish enough to wager on a game.
But they are clearly no match for the highly addictive, always-intriguing prop bet.
Yesterday the sports world welcomed yet another gambling scandal. This time, it allegedly involves an NBA player, a former player with connections in locker rooms, a well-known head coach, more than two dozen other individuals, and, in a bit of a throwback twist, the Mafia. According to the Department of Justice, the former player sold inside information to gamblers about players’ medical status while the current player, Terry Rozier, fixed his individual performance during a game in March 2023, so that others could cash in on prop bets by betting the “under.” This episode comes just as a new NBA season begins, and was considered momentous enough that FBI Director Kash Patel announced the news of the arrests himself, at a press conference in New York.
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