The gambling scandal that has rocked the NBA in recent days reveals the deep tie that binds sports and betting. Sadly, this news may be a harbinger of the end of sports as we know them. With open and legalized wagering everywhere in North America, how will people ever be able to fully trust that any game is being fairly contested and that players themselves are not taking advantage of a gaming company to make a profit? In all likelihood, this specific example represents only a small part of the problem, not the entire matter. The situation came to light on Oct. 23, when Terry Rozier and Chauncy Billups, two NBA personalities, were indicted. As the New York Times reported, “One indictment accused a current NBA player (Rozier) and another former player and assistant coach of using inside information about players to defraud betting companies. The second indictment accused a Hall of Fame player (Billups), now an NBA head coach, of serving as a lure to entice players into rigged poker games organized by organized crime families in which victims were defrauded of at least $7 million.” This sheds light on what sports have become in America and Canada ever since the gaming industry received the blessing of governments across the continent to ply their trade like a neighbourhood hardware store.
Rich Lowry, writing for National Review, asserts, “We’ve created, out of nothing, an enormous industry that is inherently corrupting, encourages people to waste their money, and ruins lives.” And for what reason? Government coffers, one supposes, though other reasons have been used to justify allowing a vice like gambling to become an employer, attraction, and taxpayer in communities across both countries. However, the problem has a long history, and sports leagues have tried to prevent gambling in their industry because they believed it could compromise the integrity of their games. In 2025, they are proving to be correct.
The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (also known as the Bradley Act after former NBA player and US Senator Bill Bradley) was passed into law upon President George H.W. Bush’s signature on Oct. 28, 1992, less than a week before Bill Clinton defeated him in his re-election bid. The law basically outlawed betting in but a few specific states. In 2017, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments regarding the constitutionality of the law, and in 2018, it ruled against the legislation. Lacking restraint, almost forty states quickly legalized betting, not wanting to miss out on the possibility of added revenues for their budgets. Promising better social programs, improved roads, or expanded healthcare initiatives, state, provincial, and local governments sought ways to welcome an industry that brought with it the threat of vice, organized crime, addictions, debt, and societal decline. Worse, as Charles Lehman of the Manhattan Institute writes in The Atlantic, “The rise of sports gambling has caused a wave of financial and familial misery, one that falls disproportionately on the most economically precarious households.”
Lehman continues, the industry’s “profits largely come from the compulsions of people with a problem. A small number of people place the large majority of bets—about 5 percent of bettors spent 70 percent of the money in New Jersey in late 2020 and early 2021.” Lowry offers a few solutions to consider. First, he would urge jurisdictions without betting to abstain and encourage others to enforce restrictions. Second, don’t waste time trying to criminalize gambling since it enjoys strong support in both major political parties. Finally, make proposition bets (a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence during a game (usually a gambling game) of an event not directly affecting the game’s outcome), restricted to individual players rather than a whole team. This would reduce the opportunity for widespread gaming of the final score.
Returning to Lehman’s article in The Atlantic (Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake), the author highlights several factors that illustrate the issue amid the government’s increasing reliance and gamblers’ firm belief in their right to choose how to spend their money. Beginning in 2018, pursuant to the Supreme Court Ruling, Americans spent about $50 million a month on gambling sites. Within five years, that number had increased twentyfold to over $1 billion every month. The societal and familial costs are devastating. Lehman continues, “Alarming patterns have started to emerge. Two recent working papers look at the economic impacts of legalization. One, by Northwestern University’s Scott Baker and colleagues, finds that legal sports gambling depletes households’ savings. Specifically, for every $1 spent on betting, households put $2 less into investment accounts. States see big increases in the risk of overdrafting a bank account or maxing out a credit card. These effects are strongest among already precarious households.” In a second one, economists Brett Hollenbeck of UCLA, Poet Larsen and Davide Proserpio of the University of Southern California tell a similar story. They found that the legalization of gambling increased the risk of household bankruptcy by 25 to 30 percent and increased debt delinquency. Again, these problems are concentrated among young men living in low-income counties. More evidence that those most hurt are those least able to contend with income loss. Kyutaro Matsuzawa and Emily Arnesen, two economists at the University of Oregon, provide a third example, as Lehman describes it – harrowing and surprising. The rate of domestic violence also rises where gambling thrives, to the tune of a nine per cent increase in intimate-partner violence. The negative impact of the gaming industry cannot be dismissed or diminished after what happened last week.
The public record reveals that gambling has permeated all sports through different methods, various means, and multiple threads. Players can fake injuries, inform friends about who may be sitting out, or simply feign a mistake. Striking out, missing a shot, falling at the wrong moment, or dropping a pass can look very real. Who can prove these are deliberate?
It leaves society with few good options and several realities. First, some people, like with alcohol, can do it sparingly, but far too many get hooked. In the case of gambling, they try to generate income out of nothing by doing nothing. It works against positive ethics and creates unrealistic expectations. It also takes people to morally corrupt places and explains why casinos are in the same neighbourhoods as prostitution and drugs. Once it gains entry to sports, then fixing the results follows. Secondly, as Elliotte Friedman pointed out on the 32 Thoughts podcast, some steps can be taken to reduce the chance of corruption, but it cannot be eliminated. Strong measures against players like Shawn Pinto (suspended for half a season for proxy betting, having allowed his friends to access his account) of the Ottawa Senators last year can strike fear into the hearts of players. It can lead to questioning and surveillance, but the addiction for some is overwhelming, and they can’t resist. Finally, as John Podhoretz suggested on The Commentary Magazine Podcast, betting is theoretically infinite. You can bet on everything and anything. The last NBA scandal involved a referee who was orchestrating games from start to finish to manage the spread, not just who would win or lose. It is, as Podhoretz states, “why this genie out of the bottle can never be put back in…” His conclusion? Enjoy sports while we can, because the only fair sports, the only leagues uncorrupted, will be AI players with AI referees. No live sports, just fantasy leagues that look live. He may be wrong, but it’s not a bet worth taking.
Dave Redekop is a retired elementary resource teacher who worked part-time at the St. Catharines Courthouse as a Registrar until being appointed Executive Director at Redeemer Bible Church in October 2023. He has worked on political campaigns since high school and attended university in South Carolina for five years, earning a Master’s in American History with a specialization in Civil Rights. Dave loves reading biographies.
