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It has a terrible potential to corrupt sport. When you can bet a lot of money on how long a college players plays, or how many points they get in a particular

It has a terrible potential to corrupt sport. When you can bet a lot of money on how long a college players plays, or how many points they get in a particular game, what's to stop them from having a relative make a bet and they just fake a cramp? The stock market is heavily regulated. I don't think you should ban sports betting, because like many vices it's easier to control if it is legal. According to Nate Silver, the more you let people make bets on obscure things the more opportunity their is for participants to cheat. So you should probably restrict betting to things no one participant can control (like the score). You also should try to make it difficult for a person to lose too much. You can't stop it, but you could probably make it harder. In the stock market there is a "qualified investor" that is allowed to take much bigger risks. You could make rules to punish betting sites that accept too many bets from destitute addicts. It wouldn't be perfect, but you can have liquor laws without having prohibition.

grecy 2y ago
> It has a terrible potential to corrupt sport That ship sailed a looping time ago. Sports teams in the US are franchises. Like McDonalds. They exist to make profit. Lots of it. It has nothing to do with sport.
- astrange 2y ago
  Nothing to do with sports except for all the time and effort they put into playing games?
  - to11mtm 2y ago
    I think one of the uglier examples was an NFL team local to me. They had one of if not the 'worst' season in the last 15 years or so and really didn't care. But a huge part of that was because the way all of the season tickets, merchandise deals, etc etc, didn't matter if the team was any good. Semi-Ironically the economics were explained by a huge fan of them; he appreciated the business savvy.
  - grecy 2y ago
    You should look at how other countries do professional sports. The teams are not franchises, they can not simply "buy" whatever players they want, etc.
rjbwork 2y ago
>It has a terrible potential to corrupt sport. When you can bet a lot of money on how long a college players plays, or how many points they get in a particular game, what's to stop them from having a relative make a bet and they just fake a cramp? Or get assaulted or murdered, internet death pool style? All kinds of really fucked up incentives are created by these legalized betting apps.
- idontwantthis 2y ago
  I wonder how many people out there would take an assault charge to win a bet. Since there’s a market you could even get investors. Get $10million together, bet it with high odds, take 25% cut, spend 10 years in jail, live out the rest of your life in comfort. Is any of that illegal besides the assault itself?
  - stonogo 2y ago
    Very much so. Even planning it, without carrying it out, would be subject to criminal conspiracy charges. Recruiting people to the scheme (even the investors) would be soliciting a crime. It's illegal to interfere in the outcome of the game once the bet is placed. Finally, once it was proven you rigged it, you'd probably be forced to return the winnings anyway. I'm sure an actual attorney could come up with even more reasons this is illegal.
    - singleshot_ 2y ago
      Doesn’t conspiracy require an act in furtherance of the crime? Are you sure that the party who has solicited the crime is not the investors? What makes it illegal to interfere in the outcome?
    - idontwantthis 2y ago
      Well darn.
      - troyvit 2y ago
        Don't give up. You just need more investors to spread the risk :)
jairuhme 2y ago
That's not new, RIP Pete Rose
nradov 2y ago
One participant can control the score in individual sports, like singles tennis or boxing (notorious for rigged matches).
ssharp 2y ago
Oddly enough, several professional sports gamblers were aware of a NBA referee manipulating game from their data analysis, well before the NBA became aware of it. That was probably 10+ years ago and I suspect data analysis by the leagues is much stronger now. Still an insane line that needs to be walked between the leagues getting revenue from the sportsbooks and gambling not impacting that play.
- harlanlewis 2y ago
  Tim Donaghy (ref): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy
  - rawgabbit 2y ago
    I don’t know how much cheating by referees has got to with it. But many years ago I found the NBA to be a foul shooting contest and gave up on it. It is unwatchable.
    - tiznow 2y ago
      The modern NBA stinks for reasons far beyond refereeing and cheating. The Donaghy scandal was a "low point" but the game was 5x as watchable then
twobitshifter 2y ago
NBA bans Jontay Porter after gambling probe shows he shared information, bet on games. “Porter took himself out of that game after less than three minutes, claiming illness, none of his stats meeting the totals set in the parlay. The $80,000 bet was frozen and not paid out, the league said, and the NBA started an investigation not long afterward.” https://apnews.com/article/nba-jontay-porter-banned-265ad5cb703d9483347037762ee90a8f https://apnews.com/article/nba-jontay-porter-banned-265ad5cb...
- nradov 2y ago
  It seems crazy that he would risk his career over a bet considering that his regular player salary was so much higher than $80K.
  - sangnoir 2y ago
    People who cheat often don't consider scenarios where they get caught.
rapind 2y ago
It gets bad enough and I’ll offer odds on who’s throwing, how long until they are busted, and how severe the consequences.
blueboo 2y ago
It’s only “potential” insofar as bad behaviour may or may not be exposed sooner or later. I think it’s more useful to understand betting’s impact as a constant corrosive effect. Betting poisons the incentives
nonameiguess 2y ago
Clearly, it's going to happen anyway at least some of the time, but the "what's to stop" is pretty obviously getting caught. It's already happened in at least three instances from the past year I can think of, though I don't remember the names because they were all pretty small-time players (Jontay Porter, who was already mentioned, is one of them). Anyone that is caught doing it gets instantly banned from the sport for life, which hopefully provides an even larger counterincentive compared to whatever incentive there is to attempt throwing a game. It's not perfect, but the leagues don't have much of a choice. The US Supreme Court ruled that banning sports betting was unconstitutional, so until the court rolls over to new justices with new opinions on the matter in a few decades, it isn't going anywhere. It doesn't make any difference how much some fans on the Internet don't like it. Federal lawmakers can't ban it.
mindracer 2y ago
The BBC have a podcast called Sports Strangest Crimes. The most recent series was about Moses Sawbu who was match fixing in the lower leagues. Worth listening to it https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jv3zvy https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jv3zvy

grecy 2y ago

> It has a terrible potential to corrupt sport That ship sailed a looping time ago. Sports teams in the US are franchises. Like McDonalds. They exist to make profit. Lots of it. It has nothing to do with sport.

astrange 2y ago
Nothing to do with sports except for all the time and effort they put into playing games?
- to11mtm 2y ago
  I think one of the uglier examples was an NFL team local to me. They had one of if not the 'worst' season in the last 15 years or so and really didn't care. But a huge part of that was because the way all of the season tickets, merchandise deals, etc etc, didn't matter if the team was any good. Semi-Ironically the economics were explained by a huge fan of them; he appreciated the business savvy.
- grecy 2y ago
  You should look at how other countries do professional sports. The teams are not franchises, they can not simply "buy" whatever players they want, etc.

rjbwork 2y ago

>It has a terrible potential to corrupt sport. When you can bet a lot of money on how long a college players plays, or how many points they get in a particular game, what's to stop them from having a relative make a bet and they just fake a cramp? Or get assaulted or murdered, internet death pool style? All kinds of really fucked up incentives are created by these legalized betting apps.

idontwantthis 2y ago
I wonder how many people out there would take an assault charge to win a bet. Since there’s a market you could even get investors. Get $10million together, bet it with high odds, take 25% cut, spend 10 years in jail, live out the rest of your life in comfort. Is any of that illegal besides the assault itself?
- stonogo 2y ago
  Very much so. Even planning it, without carrying it out, would be subject to criminal conspiracy charges. Recruiting people to the scheme (even the investors) would be soliciting a crime. It's illegal to interfere in the outcome of the game once the bet is placed. Finally, once it was proven you rigged it, you'd probably be forced to return the winnings anyway. I'm sure an actual attorney could come up with even more reasons this is illegal.
  - singleshot_ 2y ago
    Doesn’t conspiracy require an act in furtherance of the crime? Are you sure that the party who has solicited the crime is not the investors? What makes it illegal to interfere in the outcome?
  - idontwantthis 2y ago
    Well darn.
    - troyvit 2y ago
      Don't give up. You just need more investors to spread the risk :)

jairuhme 2y ago

That's not new, RIP Pete Rose

nradov 2y ago

One participant can control the score in individual sports, like singles tennis or boxing (notorious for rigged matches).

ssharp 2y ago

Oddly enough, several professional sports gamblers were aware of a NBA referee manipulating game from their data analysis, well before the NBA became aware of it. That was probably 10+ years ago and I suspect data analysis by the leagues is much stronger now. Still an insane line that needs to be walked between the leagues getting revenue from the sportsbooks and gambling not impacting that play.

harlanlewis 2y ago
Tim Donaghy (ref): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy
- rawgabbit 2y ago
  I don’t know how much cheating by referees has got to with it. But many years ago I found the NBA to be a foul shooting contest and gave up on it. It is unwatchable.
  - tiznow 2y ago
    The modern NBA stinks for reasons far beyond refereeing and cheating. The Donaghy scandal was a "low point" but the game was 5x as watchable then

twobitshifter 2y ago

NBA bans Jontay Porter after gambling probe shows he shared information, bet on games. “Porter took himself out of that game after less than three minutes, claiming illness, none of his stats meeting the totals set in the parlay. The $80,000 bet was frozen and not paid out, the league said, and the NBA started an investigation not long afterward.” https://apnews.com/article/nba-jontay-porter-banned-265ad5cb703d9483347037762ee90a8f https://apnews.com/article/nba-jontay-porter-banned-265ad5cb...

nradov 2y ago
It seems crazy that he would risk his career over a bet considering that his regular player salary was so much higher than $80K.
- sangnoir 2y ago
  People who cheat often don't consider scenarios where they get caught.

rapind 2y ago

It gets bad enough and I’ll offer odds on who’s throwing, how long until they are busted, and how severe the consequences.

blueboo 2y ago

It’s only “potential” insofar as bad behaviour may or may not be exposed sooner or later. I think it’s more useful to understand betting’s impact as a constant corrosive effect. Betting poisons the incentives

nonameiguess 2y ago

Clearly, it's going to happen anyway at least some of the time, but the "what's to stop" is pretty obviously getting caught. It's already happened in at least three instances from the past year I can think of, though I don't remember the names because they were all pretty small-time players (Jontay Porter, who was already mentioned, is one of them). Anyone that is caught doing it gets instantly banned from the sport for life, which hopefully provides an even larger counterincentive compared to whatever incentive there is to attempt throwing a game. It's not perfect, but the leagues don't have much of a choice. The US Supreme Court ruled that banning sports betting was unconstitutional, so until the court rolls over to new justices with new opinions on the matter in a few decades, it isn't going anywhere. It doesn't make any difference how much some fans on the Internet don't like it. Federal lawmakers can't ban it.

mindracer 2y ago

The BBC have a podcast called Sports Strangest Crimes. The most recent series was about Moses Sawbu who was match fixing in the lower leagues. Worth listening to it https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jv3zvy https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jv3zvy