On Monday, ESPN reported that the NBA was investigating Raptors center Jontay Porter over betting irregularities. The TLDR is that multiple sports betting accounts tried to place large wagers on Porter’s prop bets — we’re talking $10,000 to $20,000 bets when player props are typically limited to a max bet of $2,000. Porter then exited both of the games in question after only a few minutes due to injury, and the bets hit.

So, yes, Porter is being accused of intentionally lowering his stats to cash five-figure prop bets on DraftKings. And let’s be honest, it seems like a slam-dunk case at this point. Porter is on a two-way contract that pays him $415,000 this season, and no one is betting five figures on his prop bets without good reason to believe they will hit.

My guess is Adam Silver will make an example out of Porter by giving him a lifetime ban. This is an easier decision than most because 1) Porter is a fringe NBA player who might not be in the league after another year or two anyway, and 2) it’s the NBA’s first real chance to show that the integrity of the game is paramount in our new sports gambling world. But this also highlights a much bigger problem in sports today.

The Jontay Porter investigation was announced minutes after Shohei Ohtani’s press conference discussing his $4.5 million sports gambling scandal. Add in ESPN host Reece Davis recently referring to sports gambling as a “risk-free investment,” Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff saying sports bettors have threatened his family, and the NBA adding live betting odds integration into its broadcast, and it feels like the last year has had more betting problems than the previous 10 combined.

The bigger problem, though, is that all of that hasn’t happened over the last year. It has all happened in the last week. And if we wanted to expand our sports gambling scandal timeline another twelve months, we would have to add in Alabama’s baseball coach receiving a 15-year ban for fixing games, an investigation into the Temple men’s basketball team for betting irregularities, and nine different NFL players being suspended for sports gambling issues last season, including four on the same day.

Sports gambling scandals used to be juicy headlines. Fans envisioned already rich athletes trying to get richer by risking their multi-million-dollar paychecks with shady bookmakers who would threaten their families if they didn’t come through. It wasn’t a pretty picture — but that’s precisely what made it juicy.

However, the legalization of sports betting has changed that vision. These scandals are now happening much more frequently, and people forget about them within days.

Companies like DraftKings and FanDuel have used these periods of turmoil to advocate for the continued legalization of sports betting, essentially saying, “Hey, look! We were only able to catch these people because our systems are regulated.”

But that largely ignores reality. Most sports fans would never seek out a local bookie or offshore operator, and these scandals are happening much more frequently because sports betting is, in fact, legalized. Of course, the scandals with Pete Rose and Tim Donaghy happened before legalization. But now half the country can make a bet on their phone, and by multiplying the total number of people who could potentially participate in fraud, simple math tells us that was always going to be the outcome.

That doesn’t mean sports gambling should be illegal. I supported the PASPA repeal in 2018 and generally favor giving people the freedom to do what they want.

Instead, the real problem is money. Sports leagues and teams skipped the dating stage to immediately marry sportsbooks because we are currently in the softest media market we’ve seen in decades, and their primary revenue source was being threatened.

They knew this would have consequences. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that an entire generation is addicted to dopamine because of smartphones and social media. Data shows young people aren’t drinking, dating, having sex, or even driving as much as their parents, and sports gambling could obviously make all of that worse.

But these leagues and teams don’t care. The easiest way I can explain it is that professional sports are a big business. These assets are worth billions of dollars, and the people in charge ultimately decided that using sportsbooks to funnel cash from fans’ bank accounts to their own, potentially preserving their multi-billion-dollar assets in the face of a declining media market, was worth the long-term harm gambling might cause to society.

As sad as it sounds, some of this is to be expected. Most billionaire team owners are famous for socializing the construction of stadiums while privatizing the profit. No one expects them to do what is best for society, especially when money is on the line, and the commissioners of each league are really just there to facilitate owners’ desires.

However, the real reason this hasn’t reached a breaking point yet is that sports gambling has also become one of the primary revenue sources in sports media. And I’m not just talking about someone like ESPN or Barstool Sports — virtually every major sports podcast and YouTube channel is also reliant on sports gambling deals.

So not only do these sports gambling companies influence sports leagues and teams, but they also have a substantial amount of control over the people covering them.

That creates a dangerous situation. These media businesses know how difficult it can be to grow in a challenging advertising market. They see sports gambling companies spending like crazy as state-by-state legalization heats up, and they aren’t willing to risk that money going away so they could potentially stop a few people from gambling.

I’m sure some people will call me a hypocrite for taking this stance, and maybe that’s fair. I have placed plenty of bets in my lifetime, and I’m certainly in no place to judge what someone else does with their money.

Still, I feel comfortable saying these things because they are true. The NCAA recently announced that it is officially seeking a nationwide ban on all player prop betting in college sports. And while that might feel like virtue signaling from an organization that has made billions of dollars off the back of unpaid labor, it also feels increasingly likely that Congress will eventually implement more gambling advertising regulation.

The SAFE Bet Act, for instance, was recently introduced by New York Representative Paul Tonko and would ban all gambling advertisements during live sporting events.

I doubt that specific piece of legislation will pass. But I can confidently tell you that things will only worsen if nothing changes.

Sports betting companies are juicing their margins by promoting parlays and limiting winners. Leagues, teams, and the most prominent sports media companies are financially incentivized to grow the industry despite criticism. And the biggest losers are fans, who have to deal with a barrage of gambling content everywhere they look.

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