NBA announces lifetime ban on Jontay Porter for gambling

The NBA has suspended Jontay Porter of the Toronto Raptors for life after an internal investigation found he bet on basketball games and provided information to bettors to increase their odds.

Porter's scandal is the latest incident involving athletes and sports betting as the gambling industry has exploded in recent years, making such transactions increasingly accessible. It also follows a recent scandal centered around Ippei Mizuhara, who served as an interpreter for baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, who paid him 16 million yen to cover gambling debts. He is accused of receiving $100,000.

Porter's gambling practices (including his willingness to alter gameplay to support specific bets) ultimately brought into focus the ethical difficulties sports betting poses for athletes and leagues as sports betting grows in popularity. I'm guessing.

The gambling industry has grown significantly since the Supreme Court struck down policies in 2018 that prohibited many states from allowing commercial sports betting. In the years since then, the majority of states have legalized sports betting both in-person and online, making sports betting available to a much larger number of people. In 2023, sports betting generated a record $10.92 billion in revenue, an increase of approximately 45% over the previous year for the industry.

As Porter's case illustrates, a central question posed by the proliferation of sports betting is how sports leagues and athletes can maintain the integrity of the game as gambling becomes more common and profitable. That is to say.

“Unfortunately, the recent incident with Jontay Porter in the NBA is just the tip of the iceberg,” Sean McKeever, a professor at Davidson College who teaches courses in sports and philosophy, told Vox. “The forces of corruption are powerful. …and bettors can reap significant profits if they can extract valuable information and actions from players and those around them.”

Explaining the Porter scandal and its mechanism

Porter, 24, is a former power forward for the Raptors and played four seasons in the NBA. His penalty for gambling was announced by the league earlier this week and is seen by sports watchers as a warning to other players attempting similar behavior.

“Nothing is more important to fans, teams, and everyone involved in the sport than protecting the integrity of NBA competition, which is why Jontay Porter's blatant violation of the rules of the game… , the harshest punishment will be imposed.” Mr. Silver said in his statement.

Porter was ultimately arrested after bets placed on his performance were flagged as suspicious by licensed sports betting operators and gambling market oversight organizations, the NBA said.

The NBA found Porter made three mistakes.

First, Porter bet on NBA games himself, which is strictly prohibited for players in the league. The NBA found that he placed 13 bets totaling $54,094 on multiple games using someone else's online betting account. These bets did not include games in which Porter played, but did include bets on Raptors games in which Porter did not play.

Second, Porter provided sports bettors with information about his health prior to the March 20th game, inside information that could have helped the bettors place and profit from their bets. .

And third, Porter modified his in-game behavior to help fulfill bets made by bettors. Sports betting allows you to bet on everything from who will score the most points to whether a player will commit a foul. These are known as proposition bets or prop bets, and they focus more on the development of the game than simply the outcome of the game.

In Porter's case, one bettor placed an $80,000 prop bet on the fact that he would underperform in the March 20th game. The payout on that bet would have been $1.1 million. In that game, Porter stopped playing after just three minutes, claiming that he didn't feel well. However, this bet was flagged and frozen by the betting operator. After an investigation, the NBA concluded that Porter claimed illness in order to make this bet successful.

Porter's actions highlight long-standing concerns that athletes may not only influence the outcome of matches for their own benefit, but also take small actions to help bettors. The most aggressive version of such behavior is to completely throw the game away. But there are also various other factors to manipulate, as for example you can bet on who will score the first basket or who will have the most rebounds.

The league's penalty against Porter was the most severe available and the first time the NBA has suspended a player for a gambling-related violation since 1954. The penalty is intended to show the NBA's lack of tolerance for such behavior and to suggest there is a safety net. It is set up to catch this behavior while the league continues to work with sports betting businesses.

Sports leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and NHL are actively working with licensed betting platforms to facilitate sports betting in exchange for a significant reduction in revenue. For example, the NBA is working with FanDuel and DraftKings as sports betting partners, integrating live betting during games into the app. The NFL has a formal sports betting partnership as well. The Washington Commanders have a sports betting hub within their stadium.

“It's everywhere in the sports programs we watch,” says Andrew Brandt, a sports law professor at Villanova University.

Porter's lawsuit allows the NBA to claim it can catch bad actors even as it actively participates in revitalizing the industry itself.

“Jontay Porter's bet was flagged by one of the 'integrity' companies these leagues use to flag irregular bets,” Brandt told Vox. “Now Porter has been expelled, and the NBA can now assert its integrity and easily remove corrupt players who violate the rules.”

This is a growing problem that will never go away

The sports betting market is expected to grow further in the coming years, with Goldman Sachs predicting it will eventually grow from a $10 billion industry to a $45 billion industry. So far, 38 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized the practice, and more are likely to do so given the huge tax revenues involved.

The prevalence and accessibility of sports betting is likely to expose more people, including athletes, to sports betting, which could increase the likelihood of addiction, exploitation, and situations like Porter's. . “As the percentage of the population that gambles increases, so does the percentage of athletes who gamble and have problems,” said Leah Nower, director of the Center for Gambling Research at Rutgers University.

Nawar points out that athletes are particularly likely to bet on sports, which makes them more likely to develop problem gambling habits, which can lead to more problem gambling. Additionally, athletes tend to be risk-takers and competitive as a group, she says, and may believe their backgrounds make them better gamblers.

Such concerns highlight the awkward line sports leagues are walking in trying to make money from sports betting while keeping their players out of it.