Jack Mendelsohn | The Chronicle
With recent allegations of professional athletes and coaches betting on their own games, many are questioning the integrity of the sports they love so much. Kash Patel, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), recently announced a major case tied to the National Basketball Association (NBA) and illegal gambling.
Being accused of betting on the sport they play has always been a relevant conversation with plenty of athletes, and Pete Rose, the former Cincinnati Reds player who was banned from baseball due to his gambling, is who comes to mind for many people. Players of a top caliber like Rose are not the extent of this problem, and now more than ever, we are seeing action against the athletes who are involved in this crime.
Allegedly coordinated by the Mafia, dozens of players, including NBA Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncy Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, are facing serious charges. These charges connect back to a large amount of money that was bet on their own performances.
This issue stretches beyond basketball. People have no evidence to believe that this is only happening in the NBA. Is the National Football League being rigged by players? Or even in Major League Baseball? For now, there is no way of knowing what could be happening behind the scenes.
Nevertheless, even if there are not many other organizations that have the same scandal going on, it still destroys the trust between professional sports and fans. The legality of sports betting is easily questionable and nobody knows how far the corruption stretches.
Rebuilding that trust seems near impossible; the only way that I see fans being one hundred percent certain in the integrity of the games they are watching is if sports betting was completely removed across all states. The reality is that this is incredibly unlikely, even though there are plenty of states where sports betting is currently illegal for all ages.
Rather than banning sports betting altogether, I believe stricter enforcement and better monitoring need to be put in place. Athletes must face serious consequences when caught, and leagues should prioritize transparency. If fans can see that steps are being taken to protect fairness, it will go a long way toward rebuilding confidence.
The deeper question is why multimillion-dollar athletes would feel the need to gamble in the first place. Is it greed, boredom, or a desire for even more control over the game? It is common for professional athletes to present some form of greed while negotiating for contracts, but this would be a different level of manipulation.
The next step for the FBI is to investigate other sports associations, and they need to make sure they are as threatening as possible. Without strong effort, it will show their lack of attention to this important matter and will lead to similar issues with athletes betting in the future.
If this continues to be an issue, it is only a matter of time until the only possible solution would be to completely wipe the country of sports betting. I would argue that many sports fans wouldn’t want to see this happen, but it does bring up the question of what is more important. Betting on games for enjoyment or debating if the games you are watching are fixed?
