THe NBA The scoreboard turned into a stock exchange tape. The crowd is chanting, but half of them are watching their games instead. Somewhere a coach calls a timeout; somewhere else the bookmaker is grinning. It was always coming. The NBA invited gambling into the game by signing lucrative sponsorship deals and paving the way for odds and offers to be broadcast on our television screens during games. So when the FBI finally showed up on Thursday, they were just collecting rent.
Portland head coach Chauncey Billups, whose playing career ended with his induction into the Hall of Fame, and Miami guard Terry Rozier were arrested on Thursday in connection with an FBI investigation into allegations of illegal gambling and rigged poker games. Former player and assistant coach Damon Jones, who allegedly provided “Inside information” about NBA games for players was also taken into custody.
The FBI claims Rozier told people close to him that he would leave the Hornets game early in 2023 to help those in the know reap huge betting winnings (the player's lawyer says prosecutors “appear to be taking the word of wildly improbable sources rather than relying on actual evidence of wrongdoing”).
Billups, who has yet to comment on Thursday's arrest, is not accused of any NBA-related offenses but is instead alleged to have taken part in rigged Mafia-related poker games. But even so, when the NBA entered into an alliance with major gambling companies, it normalized the culture of monetization of the game, as well as the pitfalls and problems associated with betting.
If you want to see where gambling is heading, look toward Texas, where the casino tycoon Miriam AdelsonThe billionaire heir to the Las Vegas Sands fortune and majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks is lobbying for the construction of a supercasino-arena complex. in the heart of the city. The project is being touted as an “economic revitalization,” but what it really promises is that basketball will become a magnet for gambling.
The NBA has long said its involvement in gambling creates transparency, with regulated books flagging anomalies, league partners sharing data, integrity units humming in the background. Sometimes it works. Here's how Jontay Porter case was first discovered, resulting in the league's first lifetime gambling ban for a player in decades. Porter admitted that he provided insider information and manipulated his play on the court by placing bets through his partner's account. He pleaded guilty to federal charges.
This scandal signaled that the house was full of smoke. Thursday's news shows that the flames of scandal have engulfed every aspect of the sport.
When bets become ambient, they live inside broadcasts, marketing and apps and scroll under the score. The incentives around the game inevitably change. Support bets do not require the player to complete the game, only to miss a rebound, make an assist, or leave the game early due to an “injury.” The economics are obvious. The temptation is practical even for players with millions of dollars a year in income. We describe the machinations surrounding one of man's earliest sins.
Ryan Gale NBA writer and co-host Show “Nick of Time” on YouTube. He has been critical of the NBA's relationship with gambling agencies at Pdocast for years and views the current controversy as chickens coming home to roost.
“The NBA betting scandal should come as no surprise since the NBA is in bed with sportsbook companies like FanDuel and DraftKings,” Gale says. “This opens up an opportunity for players and coaches to educate players to help them cash out bets. What's more important, making money by being in bed with these gaming companies or protecting the integrity of the game and disassociating ourselves from sports gambling companies?”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver once leading promoter of legalized bettingNow calls for restraint. He asked partners to end prop bets and pushed for tougher regulation to protect players and curb the rising tide of hostility from losing players. The same advertising resource that boosts league profits teaches fans to view athletes primarily as financial instruments. It corrodes not only decency, but also the fundamental social contract in sport. And that's before we even get to how the actual experience of watching the game is ruined by constant references to gambling and betting odds.
Fast-Supreme Court decision 2018 that the legalization of sports betting in most US states has turned gaming into an interface for gambling speculation. The NBA, a star-studded league built on statistics, is uniquely vulnerable. although the NFL And MLB is far from immune..
To understand how this happened so quickly, consider anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll, whose book Addiction by Design explores how gambling creates a trance of risk and reward. Bookmakers and gambling apps are not slot machines, but their design is identical: easy deposits, micro markets and real-time betting overlays. The product is no longer the basketball game, but the bets layered on top of it.
When scandals break out, the blame usually falls on the person – the fraudster. But the broader ecosystem works exactly as it was designed: to drive engagement by breaking the game down into smaller and smaller speculations. Each cut creates a new opportunity for exploitation.
Even if the courts eventually step in and solve the problem, the image of an active gambler being punished for gambling tells fans that the firewall between the “game” and the “book” no longer exists. For many fans, every missed shot can now look intentional and every reported injury looks suspicious.
The league's integrity watchdog is now outsourcing checks and balances at bookmakers to help identify anomalies. The same corporations that profit from betting control the very behavior that betting encourages.
Real reform would start with eliminating bets on areas such as the number of minutes a player appears in a game. It will create an independent integrity clearinghouse with subpoena-ready data and powers to issue mandatory warnings. It would fund true harm reduction programs for fans and expand safety and mental health protections for players who are absorbing the fury of online bettors. Advertising should be limited, especially during youth programs, and in-game betting prompts should disappear from broadcasts. But this requires a lot from a corporation that only takes a moral stand when it helps its own performance art virtue signaling.
The scoreboard keeps ticking. The chances blink like fireflies. A thousand invisible hands are knocking”confirm your bid.” Somewhere there is a whistle, but the sound is lost under the hum of push notifications.
The NBA must decide what its product means. If the game is now a betting matrix, similar scandals will be repeated, each one “stunning” and each one predictable. If basketball is still a civic ritual, a shared act of skill and uncertainty, then gambling must return to the margins where it belongs.
