NBA Boss Says Betting Scandals Were Bound to Happen Due to Mixed-Up Rules

Adam Silver, who runs the NBA, thinks the recent gambling problems in the league were easy to see coming and were made worse by different rules in each state. At a meeting called “Tuned In Summit” in New York this week, he said the current setup does not give the NBA what it needs to handle concerns about keeping the game honest.

NBA Boss Claims Scattered Gambling Laws Hurt Oversight

Silver explained that when he first pushed for legal sports betting over ten years ago, he pictured a unified national system with built-in protections. Instead, the Supreme Court’s 2018 choice to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) let states create their own rules. With 39 states now offering some type of legal betting, the outcome has been a split system that, in his opinion, makes consistent oversight tough. He likened the situation to “working with one arm tied behind our back”, as reported by Covers.

The NBA has had to deal with a few big cases that show the dangers of its uneven setup. In 2024, the league banned Jontay Porter, who used to play for the Toronto Raptors, for life. Investigators found out he bet on games and changed how he played on purpose to help a gambling group. Porter later said he was guilty of federal wire fraud. His case led to more investigations that involved Miami Heat player Terry Rozier and free agent Malik Beasley. While no one has charged them yet, people have looked at both for odd betting linked to how they played in games.

Silver Raises Red Flags About Prop Bets

Silver highlighted prop bets as a key worry. These wagers on player stats, not game outcomes, open doors to sneaky tampering that watchdog systems struggle to spot. Some betting shops have already cut back on prop bets for certain players, but the NBA has pushed bookies and regulators to think about wider limits. The commissioner emphasized that keeping games honest should trump the lure of offering every possible bet type.

Nevertheless, Silver argued that legal betting offers a safer option compared to unregulated markets. He reminded people that illegal gambling used to flourish in secret, generating hundreds of billions of dollars each year without any supervision.

These days, licensed operators team up with integrity companies and the league to point out unusual activity, bringing a level of openness that just was not there before. In the end, Silver claimed that the real question is not if betting should happen, but how we should handle it. He cautioned that without more uniform rules across states, the NBA and other leagues will keep facing problems that could have been avoided with a clearer structure.