June 6, 2024 3 min read

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NBA Urges Federal Government to Step in and Clamp Down on Illegal Gambling

The fallout from the Jontay Porter illegal gambling saga continues to elicit responses from league officials and the sports community

The latest to interject was NBA’s deputy commissioner, Mark Tatum, who urged the federal government of the United States to lord over a stronger federal regulatory framework so that such cases may be avoided in the future.

Federal Government Can Do More to Prevent Illicit Gambling

The exact steps towards such a framework were not elaborated in Tatum’s video address, with the NBA mandarin confining himself to criticize the environment in which Portray was able to commit his alleged crimes.

Now, a second person was arrested in New York on charges of having helped the player. Yet, Tatum also noted the success of the existing gambling framework, praising it for creating the conditions in which it was possible to exchange data and detect the anomalous betting patterns that pointed out something more nefarious at play.

“The fact that we were able to look at certain irregularities in betting lines, and the data that we were able to receive from our partners allowed this to come into the light. We’ve always been, again, an advocate for a federal regulatory framework here,” he noted.

The United States, which has seen the legalization of sports gambling in more than 40 states and the District of Columbia, is already looking to strengthen its understanding and custodian powers over the segment.

There is an ongoing push that calls for the suspension of college proposition bets, and perhaps proposition bets as a concept. This form of betting has been one of the most lucrative for sportsbooks and players, but it may also herald a larger crackdown on certain types of markets. Stricter advertisement rules have been floated on multiple occasions, most recently in New York.

Strong Safeguards Make Match-Fixing Harder Than Some Perps Suspect

Proposition bets are rife for fraud, although the opportunity to actually execute such a clandestine plan is also limited because of the level of scrutiny major sports get. In the meantime, the Porter saga is not quite over. Although the player himself has been banned for life, his co-conspirators are being identified and brought on charges.

Long Phi Pham, the man who was arrested in New York, is in the focus of the investigation. According to Brooklyn US Attorney Beon Peace, Porter contacted Pham and other co-defenders, whose names have not been released to the public, to ask if “everything had been deleted” and cautioning his co-conspirators that a RICO case might be coming against them all.

Yet, this somewhat qualified success in tracking down the player and his co-conspirators is hardly enough, argues Tatum, who is adamant that the federal government ought to play a larger part in helping avoid such cases in the future. What would that look like is still a moving target.

Co-editor

Stoyan holds over 8 years of esports and gambling writing experience under his belt and is specifically knowledgeable about developments within the online scene. He is a great asset to the GamblingNews.com team with his niche expertise and continual focus on providing our readers with articles that have a unique spin which differentiates us from the rest.

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