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Sports gambling creates a windfall, but raises questions of integrity, says CU Boulder researcher Jared Bahir Browsh

Sports betting is having a big moment across the United States. While gambling on sports has been legal for decades in countries such as the U.K., it wasn’t until 2018 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that . Before then, sports betting had been permitted only in Nevada.

After the Supreme Court decision, the floodgates opened. Many states were happy to legalize sports gambling, enticed by the opportunity for more . As of May 2024, sports gambling is  and Washington, D.C. Americans wagered  on sports in 2023 alone.

Until , sports leagues in North America were apprehensive about—if not totally against—. The long history of  led many to worry that legalizing sports betting would tarnish their sports’ credibility and image. The NCAA was one of many governing bodies that .

Jared Bahir Browsh, a CU Boulder assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies, argues that the suddenness of states adopting sports betting has led to a windfall of profit for gambling companies and tax revenue for the states, but it may also endanger the integrity of sports.

But now that the Supreme Court has blessed it, sports leagues have embraced gambling, forming partnerships with brands like . The sportsbooks and platforms have integrity monitors to track . Still, a number of scandals involving athletes and the people around them have emerged .

As a professor of critical sports studies, I teach students about the history of sports betting scandals. And I think they offer lessons for the present day.

Disgruntled players and pay disputes lead to temptation

The Black Sox Scandal of 1919 helped to further organize baseball, leading to the creation of the position of commissioner of baseball, which was first assumed by former judge  Kennesaw Mountain Landis. Along with maintaining the color line, arguably his most notable action was banning, for life, the players on the .

Early professional baseball regulations , but the money was too tempting for many players to ignore—and that included members of the . The players hated the team’s owner, Charles Comiskey, and felt that they were underpaid. But they were unable to change teams due to the  in their contracts, which gave owners exclusive rights to their players in perpetuity.

A faction of the team agreed to . Those players were ultimately indicted by a grand jury and . They were acquitted of criminal charges, but Landis suspended all of the players connected to the fix—including superstar “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who admitted taking money from a teammate but maintained he was innocent of game fixing.

This was the the most notable of several attempts to fix baseball games early in the 20th century, as the game grew in popularity and a number of people associated with baseball, including players, managers and even umpires, .

Addiction isn’t limited to substances

Athlete salaries have . However, this money hasn’t shielded players and others involved in sports from the grips of gambling addiction.

There are no rules banning athletes from  or . Numerous players have wagered millions of dollars, with some athletes building up .

These debts can lead to such desperation that athletes decide to risk their careers. Baseball legend and  Pete Rose continues to sit outside the .

The most substantial gambling scandal in modern sports came in the NBA during the 2000s, involving referee Tim Donaghy. He admitted to providing information on NBA games, including those he officiated, . Donaghy served time in prison as a result. So it isn’t just players who get in trouble.

Unpaid student-athletes are especially vulnerable to improprieties–and harassment

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy on the court during a 2000 game between the New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks. (Photo: Ronald Martinez /Allsport via Getty Images)

There have been  in college basketball history, most famously at the  and at —the latter of which involved , the subject of the blockbuster film “Goodfellas.”

The increasing use of prop, or proposition, bets, which  rather than the overall result, has created a new point of vulnerability for student-athletes. While influencing an entire team is hard, history shows that individual players are more susceptible to pressure. A point guard or quarterback can slow down the game and reduce the margin of victory.

And while today’s unpaid student-athletes have the same financial incentives to cheat as earlier generations did, they face a new pressure: They’re often surrounded by gamblers on campus and on social media.  not only at large universities but at smaller schools, too. According to NCAA surveys, 1 in 3 student-athletes have faced harassment from gamblers, .

New regulations and oversight measures could help

The sportsbooks have very little incentive to address potential violations, so it’s up to organizations that oversee sports to ensure the integrity of their games.

NCAA President Charlie Baker’s suggestion to  is a good first step: The more individual players and gameplay are isolated, the easier it is for improprieties to occur.

Providing more guidance for players—and different types of punishments for different transgressions—. Gambling violations that don’t affect competition outcomes should be treated differently from ones that do. The NCAA already does this by meting out lighter penalties for  as opposed to their own.

Providing treatment for players and others suffering from gambling addiction would be helpful as well, and there’s some evidence that open discussions of  have had a positive impact.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has suggested implementing federal oversight to  of state-by-state regulations. Although scandals are still likely to occur, gambling commissions like the one in the U.K. can provide a .

The suddenness of states adopting sports betting has led to a windfall of profit for gambling companies and tax revenue for the states. But it may also endanger the integrity of sports. As policymakers mull how to address the issue, they might be wise to learn from history.

Top image: CCNY basketball players arrested for bribery in 1951. (Photo: Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)

Jared Bahir Browsh is an assistant teaching professor of critical sports studies in the CU Boulder Department of Ethnic Studies.

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