(Of course, the obligatory…)

Here is the latest report, from the New York Times (gift link!).

Right now I don’t care about the details, which are just emerging. The point is that this was 100% inevitable as soon as the professional sports leagues got into metaphorical bed with the online gambling companies. Ethics Alarms has warned about this many times (here, for example). I couldn’t justify using the “I’m smart!” clip from “Godfather 2” (my usual “I told you so!” introduction) this time, though, because even Fredo would have seen this coming…especially in pro basketball.

Basketball is by far the easiest sport to rig, particularly now that the pro sports allow betting on specific player in-game performance. That appears to be one of the pivotal ways this scandal was revealed: lots of “under” bets that an NBA player would fail to meet his typical point total in a game that the player suddenly exited after an alleged injury.

It’s hilarious listening this morning to various talking heads saying that “NBA fans learning about the breaking scandal are concerned about the integrity of the game.” The NBA had no integrity once it didn’t just acknowledge that fans could bet on its games but actively promoted gambling on games (and during games) to line its owners’ pockets. I wrote,

“The NFL, NBA, the NHL, even pro golf are all similarly raking in money through partnerships with the major online sports gambling companies. Punishing players for gambling themselves is like a liquor company requiring their employees to be teetotalers.

“The theory is that players make so much money that they won’t be tempted to engage in the addictive activity their own teams are promoting with the general public. It is a stupid, naive and ignorant theory. Rich gamblers don’t gamble for the money. Athletes, moreover, are not generally known for their intellectual acumen, ability to resist temptation, or skill at navigating mixed and contradictory messages.

“Sports leagues can’t have it both ways. They can’t make millions off of gambling, and simultaneously insist that players gambling threatens the integrity of the game. If the team owners really cared about the integrity of the game and wanted to avoid the betting and game-fixing scandals that surely are coming (baseball will have a team in Las Vegas next year, and Moe Green is licking his metaphorical chops), it would stick to the policy that sports and gambling is a volatile mixture that must be avoided.

“This will not end well. You can bet on it.”

Speaking of Moe Green, yes, the Mafia is apparently involved in the current cases. It’s easy to imagine, isn’t it? A player who makes more money than he needs gets a rush from gambling with a lot of it, and, like Pete Rose, ends up with a massive gambling debt to a bookie with connections to organized crime. The player is contacted by Big Louie from Detroit and told, “Hey, no problem, just beg out of tomorrow’s game, and all will be forgiven. If you don’t, however, your kid will end up as fish food. Deal?”

Amusingly, the NBA’s Nosferatu lookalike Commissioner Adam Silver…

…this week blamed the looming sports gambling crisis on the government for not regulating it more stringently. How about the sports leagues sending a clear message that gambling is a threat to their already shaky integrity, and not simultaneously encouraging and profiting from it while telling their players that it’s a no-no?

The NBA won’t be alone for long in the major sports gambling spotlight. And baseball is just starting its World Series! It could be 1919 all over again.