The sports world was rocked again this week when two pitchers for Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians were arrested on charges related to gambling.
Coming on the heels of the recent indictments of numerous current and former NBA players and a head coach on similarly disturbing allegations in October, the already heated debate about increasingly widespread legal wagering on pro sports has intensified. The overriding concern is about the potential damage it will cause among bettors, not to mention those watching sports simply for pleasure, who will increasingly question whether the games they are wagering on are on the up-and-up.
### The Rich History of Gambling in America
Betting has been a favorite pastime enjoyed by American sports fans for as long as anyone can remember. Until the last decade or so, it was mostly limited to informal bets between individuals, except in gambling meccas like Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
But now, years after the Supreme Court overturned a national ban on betting outside Nevada in 2018, online sports wagering has been legalized in 30 states plus DC, exploding across the land. People can now legally play the odds on almost anything. They are not confined to traditional bets such as whether a team will cover the point spread or the over/under on total points scored in a football game, or the outcome of a baseball or basketball game.
They can now wager on propositions (prop bets) like how many hits a baseball player will get, how many minutes a basketball player will be on the court, or how many passing yards a football quarterback will accumulate. It is these types of wagers that have stirred up the hornet’s nest.
### The Cleveland Pitching Scandal
It was prop bets, the most profitable for online sportsbooks such as FanDuel, Caesar’s, and MGM, that led to the arrests of Cleveland pitchers Emanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz. Prosecutors claim that Clase began rigging pitches in 2023, providing information to bettors about the location and velocity of his pitches. Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme in 2025.
The two are accused of manipulating pitches to ensure certain outcomes, such as throwing a ball outside the strike zone, and receiving kickbacks from the bettors.
### Fallout in the NBA and Beyond
Meanwhile, in October, FBI Director Kash Patel ordered the arrest of over 30 current and former NBA figures and Mafia family members in a stunning takedown of two separate illegal gambling-related cases. The scheme reportedly involved using inside information from NBA players to profit from rigged betting on games and high-stakes poker, in which high-profile former pro athletes were used to lure unwitting wealthy victims to the poker table, creating an illusion of a legitimate, high-end game.
Once at the table, the victims played against players and dealers who were in on the scam.
Even a minor sport like wrestling has not been immune to corruption. Fourteen individuals, including two former Rutgers University wrestlers, were charged on November 13 with racketeering and money laundering in a mob-linked, multi-million-dollar illegal sports betting ring not dissimilar to the one uncovered by Patel and the FBI.
### The Tip of a Larger Iceberg?
Are these cases all unique one-offs, or do they represent the tip of a much larger iceberg?
Well, a whopping total of $148 billion was wagered by Americans legally in 2024, and sportsbooks profited to the tune of a record $14 billion. With all that money floating around, the opportunities for corruption are ripe and plentiful.
What makes this even more troubling is that sports franchises are now affiliating with online sportsbooks, in some cases even promoting prop bets during their telecasts. After more than 100 years of warning athletes that gambling is strictly verboten and considered the cardinal sin for competitors, pro sports are teaming up with online gambling sites, rationalizing their partnerships as the best method for keeping a close eye on betting patterns.
But many skeptics have asserted that this is nothing more than a quest for handsome profits.
### MLB’s Response
MLB and its affiliated sportsbooks have responded to the Guardians’ scandal by limiting wagers on pitch-level prop bets (e.g., ball/strike, pitch velocity) to $200 nationwide.
In addition, these “micro-bets” can no longer be included in parlays, in which bettors wager on a combination of propositions. Parlays are widely considered by experts to be sucker bets that are particularly profitable to gambling platforms.
The league stated that these one-off events, which can be determined by a single player and may not affect the game’s outcome, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation.
### The Stakes for Professional and College Sports
These gambling scandals threaten the very integrity of professional and college sports.
When baseball’s infamous Black Sox scandal, in which several members of the Chicago White Sox were paid off by gamblers to fix the 1919 World Series, was unmasked, it almost ruined the sport. The commissioner hired to clean up the game, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned eight players for life, even though they had been acquitted in a court of law. Landis understood the damage it had done.
Many will argue that only the emergence of all-time superstar Babe Ruth in 1920 and beyond saved MLB.
If today’s commissioners of the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, and the NCAA—which regulates college athletics—cannot manage to keep their sports clean, they will likely trigger an ugly reckoning that will drive untold thousands of wary fans away from the games they love.
https://www.libertynation.com/are-pro-sports-gambling-away-their-integrity/
