Once again, the spotlight returned to organized sports and its relationship to legalized gambling after the NBA banned Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter for multiple violations of its gambling policy, including a three-month period this year in which he placed 13 bets on NBA games. using an associate’s online betting account.
There are levels of stupidity, just as there are degrees of stupidity, and Porter measures both by extraordinary measures. He violated this policy despite knowing, like the rest of the sports-watching world, that NBA employees are prohibited from betting on the league or their own teams. And do it for a net gain of just under $22,000? I mean, if you want to ruin your career and sully your family name, shouldn’t it cost more than the price of a tank of gas? Well, that’s what a full tank costs in California.
I shouldn’t joke about this, but it was all so predictable. Leagues and team owners knew that this type of behavior was not only possible but inevitable when they jumped into organized play. History has taught us – and continues to teach us – that people always believe they can cheat the system, that they can catch the watchdog napping. It’s called human nature.
Porter is probably not alone in such behavior; Turns out he was the one who got caught. Professional sports leagues and their owners have no one to blame but themselves for placing more value on maximizing revenue streams than on the pious “integrity of the game” mantra they recite in this type of situation.
The following was released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/h2TIkaE7xs
-NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 17, 2024
But what is done is done. The clock is not going to go back. Sports leagues and players, who share revenue from games under their collective agreements, are not going to turn off the financial tap, and media such as Athleticism and ESPN (which launched its own business with ESPN BET) now view their partnerships with gambling sites as expected sources of revenue.
Still, major professional leagues need to find a way to better protect the integrity of their games, and one way is to adopt a uniform zero-tolerance policy for employee betting. Could they impose such a rule? Several employment lawyers told me Wednesday that it’s open to interpretation. They argue that leagues have the right to impose rules and policies in the workplace, but that any discipline would likely have to be the subject of collective bargaining because it would impact employment conditions.
For me, it’s a fight worth fighting, even if it means going to court. Do you want to be a member of our league? Fine, but no betting on ANY organized sports. Period. Paragraph. End of the story. Violate the policy and it’s a lifetime ban. No ifs, no recourses.
Simple and concise. Written in ink, not pencil. Black and white, not gray.
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The NFL suspended at least 10 players last year for violations of its anti-gambling policy, but some of that could be attributed to exclusions and workarounds in the policy. For example, players could bet on any sport except their own (which is pretty clear), but they had to be far from the team’s facilities. So players can’t bet in their locker rooms, but they can go out, cross the street and bet as much as they want.
The situation could have been avoided with a zero-tolerance policy, but the NFL chose not to go that route even by adjusting its policy last year regarding betting on NFL games, strengthening its discipline to include a automatic suspension of one year which increases to two. if the bet is on a player’s own team. Current policy allows for a return path via post-suspension appeals. Only game rigging for gambling purposes results in a permanent ban.
NBA politics are equally confusing. It bans all employees – players, coaches, staff, referees – from playing in its games, but has an extensive disciplinary program that includes fines, suspensions and contract termination, rather than an automatic permanent ban.
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our playing rules are punished with the most severe penalty,” said Commissioner Adam Silver. said in a statement. “While legal sports betting creates transparency that helps identify suspicious or anomalous activity, this issue also raises important questions about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and our players. By working closely with all relevant industry stakeholders, we will continue to work diligently to protect our league and our game.”
Presumably, Silver is talking about side bets when he mentions “the types of bets offered on our games and our players.” This is rich considering that last month the league began including prop bets in its live streams on NBA League Pass; and it’s doubly rich when juxtaposed with the fact that Porter is accused of, among other things, making prop bets during live games. Silver and the NBA may not have placed bets on Porter, but they made him much more appealing by actively including betting on the broadcasts.
GO FURTHER
Aldridge: Jontay Porter will pay the price, but leagues continue to play with the heat of the game
For all its faults, the NCAA comes closest to having a credible anti-gambling policy. It states: “If you are a student-athlete, coach or athletic staff member, regardless of sport or division, you are not permitted to bet or provide useful information that could influence a bet in any NCAA-sponsored sport at any level. »
And yet, even with this strong executive order, more than a dozen student-athletes from multiple sports were implicated last year in a gambling scandal involving Iowa and Iowa State, and the Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired in May for “violating the standards, duties, and responsibilities expected of University employees,” the school announced. Bohannon allegedly informed someone that the Tide’s top pitcher would miss a start, leading to suspicious betting activity around the Alabama-LSU game.
In October, the Conference Commissioners Association successfully lobbied the NCAA to relax its reinstatement guidelines for student-athletes who bet on other teams from their own school. Now, violators will receive a one-season suspension and one year of forfeited eligibility, rather than a permanent ban. Only those who bet on their own teams are exposed to a permanent loss of all eligibility.
It’s not perfect, but it’s closer to being good enough than anything in the NFL, NBA, or Major League Baseball (betting is allowed on anything that has nothing to do with the baseball). And for this reason, it feels like the worst is yet to come.
(Top photo: Zou Zheng/Xinhua via Getty Images)