The Dark Side of Sports Gambling: The Impact of Sports Gambling Scandals
Jared Fong | 3 Nov 2025
Introduction
On Friday, October 24, 2025, the sports world woke up to stunning news: Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier had been arrested by the FBI for their alleged involvement in an illegal gambling ring with ties to sports betting. Despite the NBA season just beginning and with the NFL and NHL in full swing, the entire sports world stopped to discuss the implications. The scandal could have massive repercussions for the NBA and the integrity of professional sports as a whole. Yet, this is only the latest in a growing list of sports betting controversies that have rocked the industry since gambling was legalized in the United States.
For decades, sports gambling was illegal in all U.S. states except Nevada. Since 1992, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) has prohibited betting nationwide, forcing those who wanted to wager on games to rely on illegal bookies. Major sports leagues—including the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA—were unified in their opposition to legalization, warning that gambling could threaten the integrity of competition by opening the door to match fixing, point shaving, and a loss of public trust in the fairness of the game.
That all changed on May 14, 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down PASPA, lifting the federal ban and allowing states to legalize sports betting. The ruling transformed the landscape of American sports almost overnight. In just a few years, the industry exploded into a multibillion-dollar juggernaut—today worth more than $13.7 billion in the U.S. alone. Sports betting is now legal in 38 states, and participation is staggering: nearly 37% of all Americans, roughly 58% of adults aged 18–22, and 70% of college students have placed bets on sports.
Once staunch opponents of gambling, major sports leagues quickly shifted their stance once they saw the financial potential. Partnerships with major sportsbooks—such as FanDuel, DraftKings, PrizePicks, and Underdog Fantasy—brought new streams of revenue through sponsorships, official data rights, and advertising deals.
DraftKings is the number one app on the App Store for sports, ahead of ESPN and TheScore. (PokerNews)
Today, it’s nearly impossible to escape sports betting. Inside stadiums, ads cover every wall and scoreboard. Some venues, like Chicago’s United Center, even feature on-site sportsbooks. On TV, networks named after betting companies, such as FanDuel Sports Network, dedicate entire segments to gambling odds and predictions. Pregame shows highlight betting lines, commentators discuss over/under totals and spreads midgame, and commercial breaks are filled with flashy promotions from gambling apps.
Many athletes and celebrities, like Drew Brees (above) and Shaquille O’Neal, are appearing in gambling ads, influencing people to start gambling. (NPR)
The very problem league commissioners once feared has now come full circle. Every professional league enforces strict anti-gambling policies for players, coaches, and team personnel, banning them from wagering on sports or providing insider information. Yet with betting so deeply integrated into the sports experience, the temptation has never been higher.
Since legalization in 2018, every major professional sports league has faced its fair share of gambling-related scandals. Players and staff have been suspended, fined, or banned for violating gambling rules, and each new incident chips away at public confidence in the fairness of competition. The result is a growing crisis of credibility. As the business of sports continues to intertwine with the business of betting, leagues now face a difficult balancing act—profiting from the gambling boom while protecting the integrity of the games that make it possible.
History
While recent years have seen a sharp rise in sports gambling scandals, such controversies are far from new. In fact, they’ve shadowed the world of sports for over a century. Some of the most infamous moments in sports history have stemmed from the same temptation that now looms larger than ever: the allure of easy money through betting.
The “Black Sox Scandal” remains one of the most notorious gambling controversies in American sports. In 1919, the Chicago White Sox entered the World Series as a 7-to-5 favorite against the Cincinnati Reds. Yet just before the series began, suspicious betting activity flooded in on the Reds. To the shock of fans nationwide, the underdog Reds defeated the heavily favored White Sox, whose players appeared inexplicably lackluster. It later emerged that eight White Sox players had accepted $5,000 each from organized crime figures to deliberately lose the series. The accused players included two of the team’s stars—“Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Eddie Cicotte. Though some initially confessed, the evidence mysteriously disappeared, and all eight ultimately pleaded not guilty in court. Regardless of the verdict, Major League Baseball banned them for life, an act meant to preserve the integrity of the game. The scandal left a lasting scar on baseball’s reputation and led to the appointment of the first MLB commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, whose primary duty was to restore public trust.
Decades later, another baseball legend fell victim to the same vice. Pete Rose, MLB’s all-time hits leader with 4,256, remains one of the sport’s most controversial figures. In 1989, Rose accepted a lifetime ban from baseball after investigators found he had bet on games, including those involving his own team, the Cincinnati Reds, during his time as both player and manager. Rose maintained that he never bet against the Reds and never attempted to influence the outcome of games. However, testimonies from associates, such as Paul Janszen, who claimed Rose was willing to throw games for the right price, deepened the controversy. As a result of his ban, Rose has never appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot, despite his historic achievements. In a surprising turn following his death in late 2024, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred lifted Rose’s ban, reopening the debate about his eligibility for Cooperstown and reigniting the conversation about ethics versus excellence in sports.
The problem has not been confined to players. From 1994 to 2007, Tim Donaghy served as an NBA referee until a 2007 FBI investigation revealed he had bet on NBA games, including some that he officiated. Donaghy allegedly passed insider information to gamblers in exchange for $5,000 payouts when bets were successful. While the NBA’s internal investigation could not conclusively prove Donaghy had fixed games, an ESPN study found that in a sample of 30 games, he favored the team he bet on 77% of the time. Although definitive proof of match fixing remains elusive, the optics alone were damaging enough. Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison, and the scandal forced the NBA to confront questions about the vulnerability of officiating and the integrity of competition in an era of expanding sports betting access.
Tim Donaghy said the FBI arrests are “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to gambling scandals. (Yahoo Sports)
Modern Day
While early scandals exposed how gambling could undermine public trust in sports, the modern era has introduced new forms of temptation. Legalized betting has brought gambling into the mainstream, making it more accessible and visible than ever before. As a result, the leagues are once again facing the same problem in a new form.
The most recent sports gambling scandal has sent shockwaves throughout the NBA. On October 24, 2025, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former Cleveland Cavalier Damon Jones were arrested as part of an FBI investigation into illegal gambling. According to the indictment, Billups allegedly worked with organized crime figures to attract wealthy gamblers to rigged high-stakes poker games, using his celebrity status to legitimize the events. The games were reportedly manipulated using marked cards and other hidden technologies, generating millions in illegal profits. Rozier was accused of participating in a separate illegal sports betting scheme that relied on insider information. Between 2022 and 2024, he allegedly provided confidential details about his playing status to associates, allowing them to place profitable bets on his performance “unders.” In one instance, after leaving a game early in 2023, bettors with Rozier’s inside tips reportedly won more than $200,000. Damon Jones, meanwhile, allegedly used his access to NBA locker rooms to leak player availability information before it became public. Investigators claim that Jones informed associates about LeBron James’s absence ahead of a 2023 game, prompting them to bet on the opposing team before sportsbooks adjusted their odds.
Terry Roizer most likely participated in this gambling scheme due to his $8 million tax debt. (CBS News)
Perhaps the most notable recent case of match fixing involved Jontay Porter. On April 17, 2024, the NBA issued Porter a lifetime ban for violating the league’s gambling policy. A role player for the Toronto Raptors and the brother of Michael Porter Jr., Jontay Porter came under scrutiny after two of his games were flagged for suspicious betting activity. Unusually heavy wagers had been placed on Porter’s “unders,” and in both games he exited early, faking injuries to ensure those bets hit. The NBA’s investigation found that Porter was working with a sports bettor to fix outcomes and that he had also placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using another person’s account. His gambling debts were reportedly paid off through game manipulation, marking one of the league’s most blatant cases of match fixing in modern history.
The NBA also turned its attention to Malik Beasley, a veteran role player accused of improper gambling activity during the 2023–24 season. Right before a game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers, a surge of money was placed on Beasley’s “under” for rebounds. While the bets ultimately lost, the suspicious timing prompted an NBA investigation. Though cleared by the league, Beasley remains under FBI investigation and has yet to sign with another team after losing out on a three-year, $42 million extension with the Detroit Pistons.
Major League Baseball faced its own gambling scandal in 2025, when two Cleveland Guardians relievers, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, were placed on leave amid an MLB investigation. Clase, one of the league’s top closers, had drawn significant trade interest after posting a 0.61 ERA in 2024, but both pitchers were flagged after unusual betting patterns emerged around their first-pitch outcomes. Investigators found that large sums were wagered on their first pitches being called balls, followed by suspiciously errant throws, which often spiked in the dirt or missed the strike zone entirely.
The biggest name tied to recent gambling controversies is Shohei Ohtani. The Japanese two-way superstar, three-time MVP, two-time World Series champion, and owner of a record $700 million contract, was thrust into headlines when his longtime translator, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers in March 2024. Investigators discovered a $4.5 million wire transfer from Ohtani’s account to an illegal bookie. Initially, reports suggested Ohtani had paid off Mizuhara’s gambling debt, but the story shifted when evidence showed that Mizuhara had stolen the funds from Ohtani to cover his own 19,000 illegal bets. Though many were skeptical of Ohtani’s innocence at first, both MLB and the FBI later cleared him of wrongdoing, concluding that he had been a victim of theft rather than a participant in illegal gambling.
Many fans still believe Ohtani was really the one placing bets and Ippei was the fall guy, despite no evidence pointing in that direction. (MLB)
Clase, Ortiz, and Ohtani are not the only ones in the MLB who were involved in gambling scandals. Tucupita Marcano, an infielder for the San Diego Padres, received a lifetime ban in 2024 after investigators discovered that he had placed hundreds of wagers on his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Even umpires have come under scrutiny: Pat Hoberg, regarded as one of baseball’s most accurate umpires, famously calling every pitch correctly in a World Series game, was terminated for maintaining a shared betting account with a friend.
The rise of sports gambling has not spared any major professional sports league. In the NFL, several players have faced discipline for violating the league’s gambling policy. Calvin Ridley, now a wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans, received a one-year suspension in 2022 for betting on NFL games, including those involving his own team, the Atlanta Falcons, all whilst being sidelined due to injury. A year later, in 2023, five members of the Detroit Lions were suspended for placing bets at the team’s practice facility. Among them, Jameson Williams, one of the team’s top young receivers, served a six-game suspension since he had not wagered directly on football games, but still violated the league’s gambling rules. Isaiah Rodgers, now with the Minnesota Vikings, was also suspended that year while playing for the Indianapolis Colts, after being caught placing bets on NFL games for others, exploiting the legality of sports gambling in Indiana.
How Leagues Should Respond
While the number of scandals has clearly risen since the legalization of sports betting, some argue that this trend does not necessarily mean that more players and coaches are gambling. It may simply reflect that it’s now easier to catch them. Before legalization, sports gambling operated almost entirely through illegal bookies, who worked off the record and had no incentive to report suspicious activity. Tracking bets or identifying who was behind them was nearly impossible, allowing potential violations to go unnoticed for years.
Today, the landscape is vastly different. Legal sportsbooks and betting companies are highly regulated and are required to monitor, record, and report betting activity. They can trace where bets are placed, by whom, and on what events, creating a paper trail that didn’t exist in the underground market. As a result, many of the recent scandals may not indicate a dramatic increase in cheating or gambling within professional sports, but rather an improvement in detection and transparency. In other words, legalization may have brought more scandals to light, but it has also made it harder for corruption to stay hidden.
Companies like Genius Sports and Sportradar track all betting data to maintain integrity. (ESPN)
Even with all the data and technology available to detect suspicious betting, more must be done to protect the integrity of sports. Sports gambling is here to stay as both leagues and betting companies make billions of dollars from it, making any return to prohibition virtually impossible. The solution to reducing scandals, however, may lie not in eliminating betting but in redefining what people are allowed to bet on.
Most recent scandals have involved player prop bets, which are the easiest to manipulate because the outcome depends entirely on one individual. Many of the athletes implicated in gambling violations have been role players, not stars. The top stars of every league make tens of millions of dollars from their teams plus money from sponsors, so there is typically no reason for them to make more money on the side or risk losing everything they have by participating in illegal gambling. However, players in smaller roles make less money and have less influence on team success, making it easier for them to be incentivized to conspire and tank their performance without drawing attention.
One way to reduce the risk of match fixing linked to prop bets is to limit wagering options to team-based outcomes—such as betting only on who wins or loses a game. Team-based bets are much harder to manipulate. In sports like football, basketball, or hockey, where dozens of players share the field, court, or ice, it would require the cooperation of multiple athletes, coaches, or even referees to successfully rig an entire game. This level of coordination is not only difficult to achieve but also highly risky, as any leak or suspicious play could trigger investigations from leagues, sportsbooks, or law enforcement. Moreover, the high-profile players who have the most influence over a game’s outcome are generally the least likely to engage in gambling schemes. They already earn millions in salaries and endorsements, and being caught in a betting scandal would destroy their careers, reputations, and future earnings. As a result, large-scale game-fixing is exceedingly rare in professional team sports.
However, restricting betting solely to team outcomes is more of an ideal than a realistic policy. The modern sports betting industry has grown enormously around player prop bets, which let fans wager on individual performances like total passing yards, rebounds, or goals. Companies such as PrizePicks, Underdog Fantasy, and Sleeper base much of their business model on player props, often promoting them as “daily fantasy” contests. Eliminating prop bets would severely damage these companies and limit the types of wagers that attract casual bettors, which are a major source of engagement and revenue for sportsbooks and leagues alike.
One of the largest sports betting platforms, PrizePicks, permits consumers to place wagers only through multi-leg parlays composed of player prop bets (PrizePicks)
A possible middle ground is to allow prop bets but restrict them to only the “over” side of a stat. This approach would reward excellence and positive performance rather than incentivizing failure. For instance, if fans could only bet that a player will exceed a certain yardage or scoring total, athletes would have no reason to deliberately underperform to influence betting outcomes. By making it impossible to profit from poor play, this rule could reduce the temptation for players or associates to engage in underhanded behavior, while still maintaining the entertainment value and fan engagement that player props provide.
Ultimately, the future of sports depends on preserving public trust. If gambling scandals continue to multiply, fans will begin to question the authenticity of every moment on the field. Once that trust is lost, it may never return. The responsibility now lies with the leagues and the betting industry to act decisively, reform betting structures, and ensure that the games we love remain fair, competitive, and real.
