Oct 24, 2025
Sports Betting
Is anybody legitimately surprised by this latest scandal involving players and the huge money that goes with big time sports leagues?
NBA’s gambling scandal renews congressional calls to regulate sports betting
Lawmakers want “safeguards” added after charges are brought against dozens of people, including current and former high-profile NBA figures, in federal sports-betting and illegal poker investigations.
The arrests of current and former high-profile NBA figures on Thursday for illegal sports betting and rigged poker games spurred fresh calls from lawmakers for federal regulation after the scandal exposed evidence of the corrupting influence of betting on sports.
Since a 2018 Supreme Court decision overturned a federal law prohibiting sports betting outside Nevada, 38 states and D.C. have legalized gambling on sports and spawned a multibillion-dollar industry, according to the American Gaming Association.
Members of the House and Senate on Thursday called for “safeguards” after FBI agents arrested more than 30 people, including Portland Trail Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups, who authorities said was involved in a mob-run rigged poker scheme and supplied information to sports bettors about his team. The indictment does not suggest that Billups played any role in the placing of bets or that he received any money in return for the inside information that was used.
Miami Heat player Terry Rozier also was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. FBI Director Kash Patel described the alleged criminal activity by high-profile figures as “the insider trading saga for the NBA.”
Propositional betting, often referred to as prop bets, is facing particular scrutiny inside and outside of Congress. Instead of wagering on the game’s outcome, prop bets, which are at the heart of the federal case, allow gamblers to wager on players’ statistics during the game. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday said he supports increased federal regulation on sports betting to lessen the chances for manipulation of games because of betting. He pointed to his league’s request last year to its gambling operating partners to restrict prop bets on players who split their time between the NBA and its developmental league as an example of ways manipulation can be reduced.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Thursday that he was committed to getting prop bets out of the system.
“The temptation for athletes, seasoned coaches, and professional officials to adjust performances is real. Sadly, scandals are becoming more and more frequent,” Durbin said, noting that industry leaders such as NCAA President Charlie Baker voiced support for increased regulations at a committee hearing on sports betting last year.
He added: “Congress, states, and sports leagues must all work to maintain the integrity of sports and prevent future sports betting scandals,” after the Supreme Court “struck down commonsense federal law in 2018.”
Bills designed to tighten rules around gambling and gaming have been introduced in recent years, but have failed to gain overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. The SAFE Bet Act, introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-New York) in March, would require states to meet minimum federal standards in marketing, affordability and artificial intelligence, but the bill hasn’t advanced in either chamber.
Responding to the Justice Department’s indictments Thursday morning, Blumenthal posted on X that he would “continue to fight for federal legislation that provides safeguards against the excesses & abuses that lead to the kind of wrongdoing highlighted by these indictments.”
Tonko described the scandal on social media as “an inevitable consequence of the unchecked explosion of the sports betting industry,” which he said had destroyed public trust in the game with “dire consequences for countless across our nation struggling with problem gambling.”
Sen. Katie Boyd Britt’s (R-Alabama) office said in a statement Thursday that the senator was “open” to having talks “about potential solutions to crack down” on sports betting issues. Britt was one of several senators who signed a bipartisan letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month that called for restrictions on illegal offshore gambling, which is sometimes used to get around existing gambling laws and regulations.
After the Judiciary Committee’s December hearing on how the industry’s widespread legalization was affecting athletes, public health and the integrity of amateur and professional sports, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said he would be “very open” to an independent commission that would assess potential federal oversight.
Other legislative attempts during this Congress have taken a more nuanced approach to tackling specific gambling-related harms as opposed to calling for broad national regulation. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Washington), who introduced a bill to restrict prop betting in college sports, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the arrests.
“The world of prop bets has opened up a lot of potential for illegal activity and issues that can threaten games,” he told The Washington Post in an interview Thursday, but clarified he was not advocating for a prop bet ban in professional sports. Such a ban would be very “unlikely” to pass through Congress, he said, because there are “many law-abiding citizens” who enjoy participating in prop bets.
While Congress might be inclined to legislate on narrower issues, such as banning prop betting on college athletics, the argument often made by the gaming industry is that offshore betting and criminal syndicates are to blame when betting issues arise. “I don’t think there’s really [an] appetite to go back the other way,” Baumgartner said, referring to the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that ushered in legalized sports betting across the country.
Sports betting companies have responded to the NBA scandal by stressing their “commitment to rooting out abuses,” as per a statement by FanDuel to CNBC. The American Gaming Association said while Thursday’s revelations are “a stark reminder of the pervasive and predatory illegal market … 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.”
A DraftKings spokesman told CNBC: “We fundamentally believe that regulated online sports betting is the best way forward, to monitor for and detect suspicious behavior.”
We've seen this over and over.
- 1919 White Sox
- College basketball in the 50s and 60s
- Pete Rose and Art Schlichter in the 80s
- Boxing - in the forevers
And that's just the shit I can remember off the top of my head. There has to have been hundreds of similar instances even in the relatively brief history of the US. And there has to be plenty more - probably going on right now - that we've never known about, and probably never will know about.
"Integrity" in big time sports has always been a little iffy, but add the corrupting influence of gambling money, and the near-absolute eventual involvement of mobsters, and whatever sport we're talking about, there's going to be something that looks a lot like a collapse in viewership and fandom because there's no way to trust these fuckers to play it straight anymore.
It's a problem.
It's a very real problem.
And it's getting to be a very real, very big fucking problem.
Sports become de-legitimized, because you can't trust the outcome to be real.
Lawmakers want “safeguards” added after charges are brought against dozens of people, including current and former high-profile NBA figures, in federal sports-betting and illegal poker investigations.
The arrests of current and former high-profile NBA figures on Thursday for illegal sports betting and rigged poker games spurred fresh calls from lawmakers for federal regulation after the scandal exposed evidence of the corrupting influence of betting on sports.
Since a 2018 Supreme Court decision overturned a federal law prohibiting sports betting outside Nevada, 38 states and D.C. have legalized gambling on sports and spawned a multibillion-dollar industry, according to the American Gaming Association.
Members of the House and Senate on Thursday called for “safeguards” after FBI agents arrested more than 30 people, including Portland Trail Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups, who authorities said was involved in a mob-run rigged poker scheme and supplied information to sports bettors about his team. The indictment does not suggest that Billups played any role in the placing of bets or that he received any money in return for the inside information that was used.
Miami Heat player Terry Rozier also was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. FBI Director Kash Patel described the alleged criminal activity by high-profile figures as “the insider trading saga for the NBA.”
Propositional betting, often referred to as prop bets, is facing particular scrutiny inside and outside of Congress. Instead of wagering on the game’s outcome, prop bets, which are at the heart of the federal case, allow gamblers to wager on players’ statistics during the game. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday said he supports increased federal regulation on sports betting to lessen the chances for manipulation of games because of betting. He pointed to his league’s request last year to its gambling operating partners to restrict prop bets on players who split their time between the NBA and its developmental league as an example of ways manipulation can be reduced.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Thursday that he was committed to getting prop bets out of the system.
“The temptation for athletes, seasoned coaches, and professional officials to adjust performances is real. Sadly, scandals are becoming more and more frequent,” Durbin said, noting that industry leaders such as NCAA President Charlie Baker voiced support for increased regulations at a committee hearing on sports betting last year.
He added: “Congress, states, and sports leagues must all work to maintain the integrity of sports and prevent future sports betting scandals,” after the Supreme Court “struck down commonsense federal law in 2018.”
Bills designed to tighten rules around gambling and gaming have been introduced in recent years, but have failed to gain overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. The SAFE Bet Act, introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-New York) in March, would require states to meet minimum federal standards in marketing, affordability and artificial intelligence, but the bill hasn’t advanced in either chamber.
Responding to the Justice Department’s indictments Thursday morning, Blumenthal posted on X that he would “continue to fight for federal legislation that provides safeguards against the excesses & abuses that lead to the kind of wrongdoing highlighted by these indictments.”
Tonko described the scandal on social media as “an inevitable consequence of the unchecked explosion of the sports betting industry,” which he said had destroyed public trust in the game with “dire consequences for countless across our nation struggling with problem gambling.”
Sen. Katie Boyd Britt’s (R-Alabama) office said in a statement Thursday that the senator was “open” to having talks “about potential solutions to crack down” on sports betting issues. Britt was one of several senators who signed a bipartisan letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this month that called for restrictions on illegal offshore gambling, which is sometimes used to get around existing gambling laws and regulations.
After the Judiciary Committee’s December hearing on how the industry’s widespread legalization was affecting athletes, public health and the integrity of amateur and professional sports, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said he would be “very open” to an independent commission that would assess potential federal oversight.
Other legislative attempts during this Congress have taken a more nuanced approach to tackling specific gambling-related harms as opposed to calling for broad national regulation. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Washington), who introduced a bill to restrict prop betting in college sports, said he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the arrests.
“The world of prop bets has opened up a lot of potential for illegal activity and issues that can threaten games,” he told The Washington Post in an interview Thursday, but clarified he was not advocating for a prop bet ban in professional sports. Such a ban would be very “unlikely” to pass through Congress, he said, because there are “many law-abiding citizens” who enjoy participating in prop bets.
While Congress might be inclined to legislate on narrower issues, such as banning prop betting on college athletics, the argument often made by the gaming industry is that offshore betting and criminal syndicates are to blame when betting issues arise. “I don’t think there’s really [an] appetite to go back the other way,” Baumgartner said, referring to the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that ushered in legalized sports betting across the country.
Sports betting companies have responded to the NBA scandal by stressing their “commitment to rooting out abuses,” as per a statement by FanDuel to CNBC. The American Gaming Association said while Thursday’s revelations are “a stark reminder of the pervasive and predatory illegal market … 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.”
A DraftKings spokesman told CNBC: “We fundamentally believe that regulated online sports betting is the best way forward, to monitor for and detect suspicious behavior.”
Here Comes The Fucking
In the last 15 years, more than 190 rural hospitals have shut down, partly because of the plague of Private Equity, but generally because of the ongoing attack of "conservatives" looking to cut funding for a healthcare system they insist can be shoehorned into a standard business model.
There are some things that just don't work according to Harvard Business School principles, and the metrics of a bean-counter's 12-column ledger.
You can walk into a busy shoe store waving $500, saying, "This belongs to whoever finds me a pair of brown wingtips in the next 5 minutes", and the clerks will swarm all over your ass to get you what you want.
Do the same in a busy ER, and the charge nurse is going to look daggers into your heart while she tells you to shut up and sit down - you'll just have to wait while they take care of the flail chest injury, and the gunshot wound, and the comatose diabetic, and the teenaged footballer who's thrashing around the exam room because of an obvious brain bleed due to concussion - your broken arm just isn't at the top of the triage list.
Some things have to be driven by need, and not demand.
In medicine - especially in emergency medicine - whoever needs it most gets it first.
Jesus, it's like some of these genius Masters of the Universe never saw an episode of M*A*S*H, or just can't fathom a world where not everything has to conform to Freddie Hayak's vision of totally unfettered free market capitalism.
HAVE THE DAY
YOU VOTED FOR
DUMBASS
Oct 23, 2025
Tracking Trumps Actions
Trump's fuckery continues apace. Here's
We are documenting the actions, statements, and plans of President Donald Trump and his administration that echo those of authoritarian regimes and may pose a threat to American democracy. We started in January 2025. (More about us).Every entry includes a source link and date. The full or filtered list of actions can be downloaded as a CSV file under a Creative Commons licence.Follow 3-minute video updates of the latest actions on YouTube, TikTok or subscribe to a podcast version here.
Accusations As Confessions
A weird twist popped into my mind.
Castle Rock woman convicted of voter fraud for casting ballots for late ex-husband and son
The woman could be put on probation or sentenced to up to three years in prison.
DENVER | A Castle Rock woman has been found guilty of voter fraud for casting ballots for both her late ex-husband and son, prosecutors said.
Elizabeth Ann Davis, 61, was convicted Wednesday of two counts of forgery and one count of impersonating an elector for submitting mail ballots for them in the 2022 general election. Voter fraud is generally rare and detectable since the nation’s election processes provide many safeguards, according to current and former election officials.
Voters are required to put their signature on ballots before returning them.
Davis, a Republican, has previously been convicted of forgery and other offenses in Florida and Colorado, a press release from the office of Douglas County District Attorney George Brauchler said.
“Those who seek to corrupt our elections or dilute our votes — by even a single ballot — will find a DA’s office intent on their incarceration,” Brauchler’s office said.
Davis is represented by a lawyer from the state public defender’s office, which does not comment on its cases to the media.
Davis will be sentenced on Jan. 9. She could be put on probation or sentenced to up to three years in prison.
In keeping with the standard projection game that the Trumplefucks love to play, along with the stochastic shit that Trump throws around all the time, we've got a coupla dots that seem to connect here:
- Republicans bitch about "voter fraud" like it was some kind of MAGA shiboleth
- If you're convinced the other guys are doing it, it's easy to rationalize countering those evil Democrat cheaters with some cheating of your own
The woman could be put on probation or sentenced to up to three years in prison.
DENVER | A Castle Rock woman has been found guilty of voter fraud for casting ballots for both her late ex-husband and son, prosecutors said.
Elizabeth Ann Davis, 61, was convicted Wednesday of two counts of forgery and one count of impersonating an elector for submitting mail ballots for them in the 2022 general election. Voter fraud is generally rare and detectable since the nation’s election processes provide many safeguards, according to current and former election officials.
Voters are required to put their signature on ballots before returning them.
Davis, a Republican, has previously been convicted of forgery and other offenses in Florida and Colorado, a press release from the office of Douglas County District Attorney George Brauchler said.
“Those who seek to corrupt our elections or dilute our votes — by even a single ballot — will find a DA’s office intent on their incarceration,” Brauchler’s office said.
Davis is represented by a lawyer from the state public defender’s office, which does not comment on its cases to the media.
Davis will be sentenced on Jan. 9. She could be put on probation or sentenced to up to three years in prison.
About That Ballroom
White House tours have been discontinued - prob'ly so nobody can see the Russian agents planting their little spy gadgets everywhere.
But on the "bright side", once we're rid of President Yamtits McShitstain, we can gut that stupid monument to one man's fragile ego, and turn it into some useable office space for a legit government.
East Wing
before
East Wing
after
Donald Trump is a one-man plague of locusts.
Overheard
Nothing gets rich people more riled up
than talking about what they think
poor people don't deserve.
The Laundry
My contention is that Trump's ballroom is another Laundry for bribe money.
Parnas has a list of "donors", and now we'll have to wait and see what they get in return for their generous "gifts".
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