In the six years since the Supreme Court struck down a law limiting gaming betting to Nevada, sports leagues of all shapes and sizes have gotten into gambling. Decades of resistance aside, professional leagues have taken millions of dollars from casinos and sportsbooks, which spend huge sums to lure new customers. Previously restricted areas, such as Las Vegas, are now free for all. Last month, the National Football League hosted the Super Bowl.
Still, the league continues to insist that protecting the integrity of the game is its top priority when dealing with gambling companies, agreeing to a zero-tolerance policy it once argued for in court. This means penalizing any player or coach who bet on their sport, and in some cases on all sports. I think betting on games would provide incentives to influence the outcome in potentially insidious ways, such as deducting points.
But the league’s bigger risk may come from those close to the players and coaches. An interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers slugger and pitcher Shohei Ohtani has been fired by the Dodgers for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from players for betting with an illegal bookmaker that is under federal investigation, according to reports.
The details of Otani’s situation are still very unclear. But he and interpreter Ippei Mizuhara have been friends for years, which raises uncomfortable questions about whether Mizuhara could have used his inside knowledge of Otani for his own gambling benefit. For example, who would know better if a star had pain in his knee or shoulder the day he was scheduled to pitch?
A Major League Baseball spokesman said the league was still gathering facts about the incident.
Robert Williams, executive director of the New York State Gaming Commission, said the use of inside information by players or team members to gamble is not only one of the greatest threats to the integrity of sporting events, but also a police officer’s concern. He said it was one of the hardest things to do.
“Where the problem arises is if a player’s cousin is eliminated twice, or a friend knows about the player or their injuries, or worse, it could somehow affect the player’s performance, like a missed free throw. said Williams. he said “I don’t think anyone is sure we can catch them all.”
In fact, legal sports betting is exploding, turning the task of tracking suspicious activity into a game of whack-a-mole. Americans will legally bet nearly $120 billion on sports in 2023, according to the American Gaming Association. The group said nearly 25 million more Americans bet on sports last year than in 2018, and that 38 more states will have legalized sports betting this year.
Since California is one of the insurgents, Mizuhara could have potentially gone to an illegal bookmaker. Either way, Mizuhara is just the latest team or league employee to become entangled in gambling, and undoubtedly will not be the last.
Last week, Amit Patel, who worked in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ finance department, was sentenced to six years and six months in prison for embezzling more than $22 million from the team. Patel used some of that money to bet on online gambling websites and buy cryptocurrency, sports memorabilia and country club memberships.
The NFL, which has been free of player gambling violations for decades, fined 10 players last season, including seven who were banned for the entire season, for betting on NFL games. But the league also punished about a dozen league employees, including two who were fired within the past two years, for violating gambling policies. One former employee said he was fired four years ago for betting less than $1,000 on the NFL and other sports through a company that is now a league partner. Another employee said the league’s main concern seemed to be the potential for debt to be used as leverage against employees.
“We need to educate our people,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said last month in response to questions from people wondering whether NFL games have been modified. “We need to ensure understanding while keeping people guessing and aware, from owners to players to coaches to everyone in the organization to everyone at the league level to partners. We need to keep the bar as high as possible. “Maybe we can.”
Some experts argue that professional athletes in the United States are paid so high that they have little incentive to get paid to fix their competition. Still, inside information Although useful for gamblers, they can still be filtered out through other means.
For example, in April 2022, there was a pre-recorded Professional Fighters League event marketed as if it were a real match. “It was written in sports books, ‘You don’t know what’s going on, but you bet as if you know who wins,’” said Matt Holt, founder of US Integrity. Betting patterns on behalf of sports organizations.
Some sports books and state regulators froze betting on the event, but not before significant losses were incurred. It was later determined that someone within the league had violated a confidentiality agreement and told others the outcome of the fight. However, no known punishment was handed down.
NBA referee Tim Donaghy began serving a 15-month prison sentence in 2008 for his role in a gambling scheme in which he was paid to pick winners of NBA games and provide inside information to gamblers.
Sports-related books also voiced opposition to the use of inside information. Three days before quarterback Tom Brady said he would come out of retirement to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in March 2022, several large online bets ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 were placed on the Buccaneers to win the 2023 Super Bowl. The maximum odds are: 60 to 1.
Jay Kornegay, vice president of online gambling company SuperBook, said the bet was too big for random people acting on a hunch that a team without a clear quarterback would win the NFL title.
Whether that’s true or not, it’s clear that the surge in gambling across the country will lead to more questions about the boundaries between athletes and those close to them.
“I think it’s crazy to think there won’t be a scandal involving someone trying to influence the outcome of an event,” said Williams, a New York Gaming Commission executive. “There are always individuals trying to gain the upper hand, whether legally or illegally.”
Rebecca R. Ruiz contributed to the report.
