Virginia May Ban Certain Sports Betting Markets After NBA Scandal

The NBA gambling scandal that rocked the league will be subject to more intense scrutiny by gaming regulators nationwide, and Virginia is at the forefront of this movement.

NBA Under Scrutiny

Portland head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat veteran guard Terry Rozier were both recently arrested and charged in two separate indictments related to gambling.

Billups was accused of participating in a rigged poker game orchestrated by New York mobsters, while Rozier was charged with using non-public information regarding NBA players and their injuries to place illegal wagers.

It is the latter charge that affects the average sports bettor and questions the integrity of the league. Nothing causes greater frustration and anxiety to league commissioners than gambling scandals. It usurps the confidence that fans and bettors alike have in the integrity and authenticity of the games that are played.

Should that trust erode, fans will lose interest, people won’t risk wagering on what they feel are fixed games, and ratings will plummet.

Adam Silver Responds to Growing Integrity Concerns

This will have a deleterious effect on league revenues, and state governments will take in less sports betting income because the sportsbooks in their markets will see their handles plunge.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed the scandal shortly after it broke and was candid in his remarks, saying, “My initial reaction was I was deeply disturbed. There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition. I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting.”

Virginia Considering Its Options

In the wake of the NBA betting scandal, Virginia lawmakers and regulators are reconsidering the markets that their sportsbooks are licensed to offer. Basketball is one of the easiest sports to fix because it is such an individual sport..

However, while it remains difficult for a single player to influence the outcome or total score of the game, player proposition bets present a different scenario altogether.

Player props deal with betting on the performance of an individual and not an entire team. Thus, a player can easily pull himself out of a game and affect all those props on his point total, assists, rebounds, and even minutes played, which go under the posted total.

Underachieving is as easy as a pulled hamstring or any other “injury” that can be concocted on the spot.

Virginia Regulators Weigh Restrictions on NBA Player Prop Bets

Some Virginia lawmakers and regulators are wondering whether player props should even be allowed. Members of the Virginia Lottery Board met late last week to discuss this topic, and executive director Khalid Jones stated that the recent NBA betting scandal was the primary reason why the group met.

“When we feel like we have good information on it, and that’s going to happen quickly, this research, we will move to … potentially restrict certain markets from a sports betting standpoint, particularly with respect to the NBA,” Jones told the board members.

Even the NBA would welcome states restricting or eliminating player props, as evidenced by a league memo to each team that read, “Proposition bets on individual player performance involve heightened integrity concerns and require additional scrutiny.”