As pointed out in this most recent case, the players were providing inside info to third parties, betting on their own teams etc..
So in restricting them to betting on pro sports only, does this really “prevent” anything?
Let’s say I’m a starting on Acme University’s basketball team. But I spent the fall betting pro football and did poorly. So poorly that I’m $25k in the hole. Someone finds out (trust me people talk) and individual says he can make this problem go away by you shaving a few points in Acme U’s next game. And he can make it a little better for you if the future if you have team mates or friends on other teams that might want in on it.
Do you think the NBA was concerned about Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan losing millions in casinos? No not for them personally. They were concerned however about what losing that amount of money “might” lead them to do get even. I’ve been in the GA rooms long enough to simply say that many have no idea what gamblers will do to “catch up” . I’ve heard some crazy things that would blow your mind.
I always thought one of the biggest scandals - that MLB covered up at the time - was their umpires being put on what was apparently "double secret" probation at the same time they were banishing Pete Rose from the game.
March 8, 2002
Major league umpires Frank Pulli and Richie Garcia were placed on two years' probation in 1989 after a secret investigation into gambling on sports other than baseball. The New York Daily News said John Dowd, also the investigator in the Pete Rose gambling probe, wrote the report that led to the sanctions against the two umpires.
Fay Vincent, who was deputy commissioner and later commissioner in 1989, said that Don Zimmer -- then manager of the Chicago Cubs -- also was placed on probation in 1989 for betting on sports other than baseball. Zimmer discussed the sanction in a book published last year.
"These guys came in, they didn't deny it, it was no big deal," Vincent said. "That was it."
Vincent said the case was minor is his mind because there was no evidence of betting on baseball. Rose, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, agreed to a lifetime ban that same year following an investigation into his gambling. While there was no official finding, commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti said he had concluded that Rose, the career hits leader, had bet on baseball.
Pulli and Garcia did not respond to attempts to reach them by the Daily News. Pulli did not return a telephone call Friday from The Associated Press seeking comment and Garcia could not be contacted. Pulli is entering his third season as an umpire supervisor and baseball is considering hiring Garcia as a supervisor.
Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office, declined comment.
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But what is to stop the umpires - who have far bigger say in the outcome of a game than Pete Rose did - from having an Eric Gregg level strike zone to help a team win and help clear a debt? You know, it was at exactly this same time Tim Donaghy was rigging the outcome of the NBA playoffs.
Rich Garcia was the guy who thoroughly botched Game One of the 1996 ALCS, when he gave a home run to the Yankees when a 12-year-old kid interfered.
You think that doesn't look completely different when you find out the guy had been on probation for gambling?
