Solution to gambling scandals in pro sports

[Polishprince]

Easy peasy.

Just license professional baseball, basketball players, like they do with horse trainers and jockeys.

Since there is big money involved, screening these players, making sure they don't have underworld connections, or are involved in illegal drugs or other morally reprehensible behavior that could subject them to blackmail would do a lot to clean up the sports and to keep the gambling action on the up and up

Other areas of gambling, like tracks, casinos, lotteries, the numbers racket, etc, are licensed.

I think that baseball, the NBA and other sports outfits would appreciate this and be glad to pay as well as the publicly owned bookmaking outfits to regain confidence in their sports.

Baseball gambling scandals: Emmanuel Clase, Shohei Ohtani's interpreter, Pete Rose, Black Sox and more

MLB's history with gambling has not caused the league to shy away from corporate partnerships

www.cbssports.com

 

[Orangecat]

It should be perfectly legal for players to wager that they will win. Just not the opposite.

 

[1srelluc]

Like a Horse Trainer?

Will they put them down when they can no longer play?

Sorry Rogers, off to the rendering plant you go.

 

[Polishprince]

It should be perfectly legal for players to wager that they will win. Just not the opposite.

Jockeys can bet on the horse they are riding, so I don't see a problem with that either.

Pro wrestling has never had a gambling scandal

 

[candycorn]

Pro wrestling has never had a gambling scandal

Neither has Broadway.

Both are scripted although ocassionally someone on Broadway goes off character.

 

[Anomalism]

It should be perfectly legal for players to wager that they will win. Just not the opposite.

Allowing players to bet on themselves to win sounds harmless on the surface, but it actually creates integrity risks. People usually focus on players betting to lose and throwing games, but the mirror problem is also bad. If a player can legally bet big on their own win, the easiest corruption target becomes not him, but the opposing team. Somebody could approach an opponent, offer cash to miss a block, blow coverage, or tank a key moment, and now the “honest player betting on himself” becomes the perfect camouflage for a rigged result.

Even if the player is totally clean, the moment he places a bet, he broadcasts exactly how much the outcome is worth to him. That makes him vulnerable to extortion, blackmail, or pressure. Players also carry enormous amounts of insider information, injuries, locker room tension, gameplans, weak points, emotional states, and using that knowledge for betting is basically insider trading. It’s not just the throwers you have to worry about; it’s the ecosystem of people around the game who suddenly have leverage.

Casinos and sportsbooks, the people who profit most from gambling, ban this stuff outright not because they’re moral, but because letting the people who influence the outcome bet on the outcome invites match fixing, opponent bribery, ref manipulation, and syndicate involvement. If the goal is protecting the integrity of the sport, you can’t open that door even a crack. Players betting on their own games, even to win, blows a hole straight through the hull.