When law enforcement officials are making statements about alleged “sports rigging,” the Mafia, and using titles like “Operation Nothing But Bet,” trying to assure concerned onlookers that “the system” of regulated sports betting is “working” is not a fair fight.
- A major NBA-linked betting scandal may have raised new doubts about the integrity of legalized sports wagering, despite assurances the system is “working.”
- The case allegedly involves insiders using confidential team information to place fraudulent bets, with sportsbooks helping uncover the suspicious activity.
- While regulation exposes wrongdoing and allows fixes, the rapid growth of new platforms like prediction markets adds fresh risks and ongoing integrity challenges.
That's a paraphrase, but, look, the system is kinda working. It’s just that in doing its work, the system is also bringing to light things that may make people doubt the system.
The system isn’t perfect, either. How could it be? The system also needs time to work. The same system is also watching as a new system is growing alongside it.
Some fantastic nicknames here pic.twitter.com/qvMBknzsla
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) October 23, 2025
Then, when you keep having to say the system is working over and over again, the argument stops working as well as it may have at first. And, on Thursday, "the system is working" was put to the test once again.
That’s perhaps a complicated introduction, and I swear I will explain further. However, before I go any further, I should stress that everything in this column should be framed with the word “allegedly,” because, to quote the government, “the charges … are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.”
So, that said, everyone got a good jolt on Thursday, when U.S. law enforcement announced criminal charges in connection with a “Widespread Sports Betting and Money Laundering Conspiracy." That was in addition to charges tied to organized crime-connected poker games.
For the purposes of this column, I’m going to stick to the sports betting stuff. You can, however, read about both cases here and here.
Lots to chew on
To sum it up, between December 2022 and March 2024, the defendants and their associates in the sports betting-related case are alleged to have “obtained and misused non-public information” about NBA games to make “fraudulent” bets and laundered the proceeds.
“The conspirators allegedly obtained insider information from several NBA players and coaches, including [Terry] Rozier and [Damon] Jones, and distributed that information through a network of bettors,” a press release said. “These bettors placed wagers through online sportsbooks and retail betting outlets, falsely representing that their wagers complied with the betting companies’ rules – which included, as relevant here, not betting on non-public information or using straw bettors – while concealing that their wagers were based on confidential team information.”
Several NBA games were allegedly involved in all this, such as a Los Angeles Lakers game, ahead of which Jones is accused of texting a co-conspirator to "Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! [Player 3] is out tonight. Bet enough so Djones can eat to [sic] now!!!"
This “Player 3,” allegedly and reportedly, was LeBron James.
The media will all rush to a narrative of "legalizing sports betting led to this behavior"
— Joe Brennan Jr (@joebrennanjr) October 23, 2025
The truth is "this behavior" has long existed, and legalizing sports betting created a world where cheaters could be found and punished https://t.co/XqjXfbYXSJ
So, even though everything remains alleged at this point, what’s alleged is concerning enough. It’s also understandable enough for someone who doesn’t spend their days swimming in these gambling waters to wonder what the hell is going on. Maybe they're even thinking "Hey, legalized sports betting ... not great," or calling for a ban on player props.
It is even further understandable that when you put all of this news together, a response like “this shows the system is working” could be a tough sell. It is, however, a sales pitch that must be made.
The victims are WHO?
Who first suspected the alleged wagering announced on Thursday could be a tad suspicious? While it wasn’t spelled out in the indictments, it would likely be the sportsbooks taking the bets, who have business, legal, and regulatory reasons to elevate these suspicions. And elevate they probably did, in some fashion, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have had Thursday’s news.
“The sportsbooks themselves are victims in this case,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, during Thursday’s press conference.
The American Gaming Association chimed in later in the day, saying the news was “a stark reminder of the pervasive and predatory illegal market, ensnaring countless individuals and operating in the shadows.”
“It is important to recognize that the regulated legal market delivers transparency, oversight, and collaboration with authorities that assists in bringing these bad actors to light,” AGA CEO Bill Miller said in a statement.
So, yes, “the system works” argument is again being made. It’s just tough to hammer that message home when we seemingly have a steady drip of scandal. It may lose its potency with a wider audience. After all, weren’t we just talking about Jontay Porter???
Well, yes, and it’s worth noting that Thursday’s allegations include the Porter-related incidents we first learned about last year. We’re still working within that Porter-related timeframe, really.
"I think there should probably be more regulation on sports betting..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 21, 2025
We've asked some of our partners to pull back on some of the prop bets" ~ Adam Silver #PMSLive https://t.co/2lpJIZg1pn pic.twitter.com/lrhKo00mwe
So what more can be done? Athletes, coaches, and staffers are being told to steer clear of sports betting-related situations, and they are now seeing the serious consequences of even alleged activity. The attempt at deterrence is happening and has happened.
ESPN reported on Thursday that current Lakers coach JJ Redick said the league's anti-gambling rules had been hammered home again to his team, "independent of the FBI's investigation."
"We've had two meetings on it already," Redick said. "It's obviously on the front of everyone's awareness given the last two years, but other than that, there's no other comment."
Is there a way from stopping shenanigans altogether? Probably not! If you made sports betting illegal again, people would just bet on sports illegally and shenanigans would happen there. There’s just a decent chance we wouldn’t hear about it as quickly as we are now.
How do we know this is possible? Look no further than what was contained in one of Thursday's indictments. In connection with an April 2023 Orlando Magic game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers, one defendant and a co-conspirator allegedly learned that the Magic would not be playing their entire starting lineup.
"Shortly thereafter, [the defendant] placed an approximately $11,000 wager with an unlicensed bookmaker that the Cavaliers would cover the game's spread of 9.5 points, that is, the bet would be successful if the Cavaliers won the game outright or lost the game by nine points or fewer," the indictment said.
The emphasis above is mine, because this an alleged example of illegal sports betting that could happen with or without regulation. It didn't even involve props. Oh, and the Cavs won by 24 points.
What’s also helpful about having a say over sports betting via legalization and regulation is that you can tweak and adjust and change it in ways to address the various concerns that arise. Such as the NBA’s push to curb certain player prop betting, something state regulators have done as well. You can’t do that when you have no control. There is control now, but finding the right balance of what should be allowed and what shouldn’t is still a work in progress.
Mistakes are going to be made, but at least something can always be done. In fact, more will probably have to be done. Because Thursday’s allegations are actually from a somehow-quaint period of sports betting, before prediction markets upended everything.
“Yes I understand Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups were arrested for gambling…
— Easy (@EasyEatsBodega) October 23, 2025
This is NOT gambling, they are PREDICTING.” pic.twitter.com/W9zjOBhIGs
It wasn’t until late last year that the first federally regulated prediction market threw out some sports event contracts for people to trade. Now, though, there is a form of legal sports betting happening in all 50 states via prediction markets. And these prediction markets exist outside the state-level rules online sportsbooks abide by, which have helped discover the suspicious wagering that makes people suspicious about the effects legalized wagering.
This has many who have lived under the state-regulated system for gambling annoyed and outraged. One argument they have made is that prediction markets lack the sort of protections state-regulated sportsbooks have for monitoring the integrity of betting markets and games. The AGA, for example, remarked on Wednesday, in response to a new partnership between the NHL, Kalshi, and Polymarket, that "the platforms in question fail to comply with essential standards."
Prediction protections
Prediction markets don’t want to be seen as a vector for sports corruption. Kalshi, for instance, announced a partnership earlier this year with integrity monitor IC360. The NHL also told Covers on Thursday that league rules prohibit all personnel “from trading NHL contracts in the same way we prohibit all NHL personnel, including Players, from betting on the NHL.”
“These platforms are required to comply with the stringent requirements set forth by Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulations,” the NHL added. “Integrity is paramount to the NHL and our agreements with Kalshi and Polymarket require that each undertake security measures to prevent and address unauthorized contract trading, in addition to their CFTC regulatory obligations.”
The NFL has similarly crafted prediction market-related rules. Still, these are new, which means there are now new things to worry about.
We’re going to be worrying forever. That’s just how all of this works. What’s worth remembering is that at least there are things that can and are being done.
Deep breath, now: the system is working.
