Another day, another new sports gambling scandal. The world of sports and the NBA has been hit with yet another gambling scandal as Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter has come under investigation for allegedly phoning in his performances.
Gambling is going to be the downfall of professional sports.
In what is becoming a very common and sad occurrence, another professional sports participant has been under investigation for alleged illegal gambling activities with Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter the latest player caught up in the harmful web of gambling. And, to be honest, I just don’t see how professional sports survives this.
What has the world of sports come to? How have the major sports leagues fallen so low?
Oh, that’s right…gambling. Sports gambling, more specifically. Now, I don’t want to make it sound like I judge those who gamble as that’s not the case at all. If the law permits one to gamble, then their actions cannot be judged in a legal sense for they are not committing a crime if they do so in legal fashions; plus, gambling is seen as just as ethically wrong as lying, stealing, and/or cheating by many, so who am I to judge one person’s alleged moral shortcomings over another?
Can one sinner truly claim superiority over another? I do not believe so, and thus don’t cast judgement over others in cases with “sins” or “shortcomings” like this.
That’s not the issue I have with gambling. No, my issue with gambling is how these sportsbooks and MASSIVE gambling outlets have become nigh-on synonymous with the professional sports leagues themselves with all of their ads and sponsorships, yet the involvement of gambling is so pervasive to professional sports that its almost entirely illegal to practice by 99% of all professional sports participations.
How does that make any sense? In my opinion, it does not and that’s why we are seeing MASSIVE, UNPRECEDENTED spikes in illegal gambling incidents taking place among the major North American sports.
And this case with Jontay Porter is just the latest example.
Now, Jontay Porter is hardly one of the profile examples of gambling in sports as the recent developments with Dodgers and MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani or Titans and NFL star Calvin Ridley are/were, but Porter still is a professional athlete with 25 games under his belt for Toronto as an NBA player this season.
And that’s why this is still a professional sports issue.
So, as for the case itself, the details are a little murky for Porter is accused of putting in suspiciously poor performances on January 20th (when the Raptors faced off against the LA Clippers) and March 20th (when the Raptors faced off against the Sacramento Kings) that were well below his “prop-wager lines” as a sportsbook in Las Vegas detected “betting irregularities” on those dates and games.
The evidence in this case is very murky as even though Porter did go do with injuries early in both appearances with less than 5 total minutes played and 0 points, the sportsbook claims the “betting irregularities” were not related to Porter or his personal “prop-wager line”. But, something must have settled the wrong way with the NBA as they have launched a full-scale investigation into the matter.
I hope this issue is resolved and Porter is not guilty of these terrible allegations of essentially match-fixing, but just having all of these allegations and convictions of gambling is terrible for the reputation of the MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA, and every other North American sports league.
You won’t have a fully transparent, completely credible league when so many staffers, which includes those on the field/ice/court and behind the scenes, are getting hit with gambling violations that would destroy careers just 10 years prior.
And without credibility, do you really have a sports league?
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