Move to Federally Regulate Sports Betting After NBA Gambling Scandal

In the wake of the gambling scandal featuring former NBA superstar Chauncey Billups and current Miami Heat player Terry Rozier, a move to regulate sports betting in the US at the federal level has gained traction.

Bringing the Heat

Last week, the FBI arrested Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, among others, in two separate indictments. Billups was accused of participating in a mob-run, rigged poker game. Although that may not do much for Billups’ career, the fix has been in on high-stakes poker games many times before.

However, the more concerning of the indictments is the one involving Rozier, which accuses him in a federal sports betting and money laundering case that prosecutors say involved using non-public information about NBA players and injuries to place illegal wagers.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said Rozier is one of six defendants in the overlapping cases and, during a Thursday morning press conference, said, “Your winning streak has ended. Violating the law is a losing proposition.”

FBI Director Kash Patel described the first case as a “wide-sweeping criminal enterprise” that conflated NBA stars rubbing elbows with New York mobsters.

“This is an illegal gambling and rigging operation that spanned the course of years,” Patel said. “This fraud is historic in its scheme.”

Attorney Criticizes FBI Tactics

However, Rozier immediately posted a $6 million bond and walked out of jail the same day. His attorney, James Trusty, said the feds got it wrong and should have allowed Rozier to turn himself in voluntarily but wanted to parade his client in handcuffs in front of the media.

“They wanted the misplaced glory of embarrassing a professional athlete with a perp walk,” Trusty said. “That tells you a lot about the motivations in this case.”

The NBA placed Billups and Rozier on leave after the arrests and released the following statement: “We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities. We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”

Federal Regulations

The feds have tried to govern the sports betting industry with proposals such as the Supporting Affordability & Fairness with Every Bet Act, or SAFE Bet Act, sponsored by Representative Paul Tonko and Senator Richard Blumenthal.

This proposal cropped up shortly before March Madness, the NCAA men’s and women’s national basketball tournament that generates billions of dollars in sports betting activity, earlier this year.

“In exactly one week, Americans will be placing bets and likely losing those bets made on their favorite teams,” Tonko said. “We are not here because we want to stop the industry from breaking [revenue] records, nor are we here to prevent Americans from wagering on sports should they choose to. We’re here today because the government, at every level, has failed to pay attention to or understand the impact of gambling-related harms.”

Congressional Approval Still Uncertain

Thus far, proposals like this have failed to gain enough approval in the congressional chambers, but this latest scandal could reignite the debate for federal oversight, despite the pushback from state regulators. One of the major issues deals with eliminating player proposition bets, or prop bets, as they are commonly known.

Representative Michael Baumgartner, who previously introduced a bill to restrict prop betting in college sports, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the arrests.

“The world of prop bets has opened up a lot of potential for illegal activity and issues that can threaten games,” Baumgartner stated.

However, eliminating prop bets in professional sports, he said, was “unlikely” to pass because there are “many law-abiding citizens” who enjoy participating in prop bets. It is also true that prop betting is a substantial revenue generator for sportsbooks and the states’ tax coffers.