Fans “can’t watch a game without gambling being part of the advertising or on-air discussion”Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY NETWORK

Raptors C Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA following an investigation into gambling activity, but that “doesn’t mean” players betting on games they are involved with “won’t happen again,” according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA TODAY. It was “inevitable it happened in the first place.” Gambling is “everywhere, and the leagues (just not the NBA) have embraced it.” Fans “can’t watch a game without gambling being part of the advertising or on-air discussion.” It is a “money-maker” and “good for business.” The league “can’t prevent a Jontay Porter situation,” and that is “why there are safeguards, such as monitoring, to identify improper wagering.” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said, “The alternative is illegal sports betting, and I think at least in a legalized structure, there’s transparency.” Zillgitt noted the concern from Silver “is real.” Silver has “long proposed federal regulation,” and he also is “suggesting limiting or eliminating prop bets involving players, namely players with non-guaranteed or nominal contracts who might be more easily influenced to break rules” (USA TODAY, 4/17).

CRISIS POINT? The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Jason Gay writes infractions stemming from sports betting “are snowballing,” and the NBA is “hardly alone.” Multiple NFLers have been “suspended for betting infractions” and college sports “are inundated.” MLB recently faced a betting scandal that involved Dodgers P/DH Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter. One of the “sells of sports betting legalization” is that “moving the market into the daylight makes it easier to regulate and monitor.” Yet it is “hard to not feel that the sports world’s continued bear hug of the business — not just by the leagues, but their media partners — has contributed to a confusing vibe that this is all harmless fun.” Sports broadcasts, podcasts, radio shows are “awash with sponsor-driven betting segments and advertising,” and it is “tough to find a media company invested in sports that isn’t in business with multiple gambling partners or fully the business itself.” It also is “another signal of widening concern about legal ‘prop’ bets on individual performances.” However, prop betting is a “robust chunk of the legal business.” These companies have “poured millions into leagues and media partners, to say nothing of the revenue given to states,” so they “will have a noisy say” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/18).

OPENING PANDORA’S BOX: THE ATHLETIC’s David Aldridge wrote if the NBA thinks Porter is the “only one of its current employees that has wagered a buck or two, or $15, or $22,000, on one of its games, whether for or against that employee’s/employees’ teams, that’s a whole ‘nother level of naive.” This is the world that pro sports “has helped create.” After decades of “treating gambling as a third rail, almost every major U.S. pro sports league has not only gotten comfortable associating betting on its games, but also encourages it on a daily basis,” with a “cacophony of ads” during games from each league’s betting partners. Silver last week said that he “wants sports betting to be a regulated industry,” and that if people are going to bet, it is “at least better that they do it in the open than in the shadows.” Aldridge noted that is, “certainly, a fair point,” but it “doesn’t diminish the danger that remains to not just pro sports leagues, but also every college that fields a team, in any sport.” The NBA continuing to “associate with gambling companies, and profit from deals with them,” makes the league’s “claims about how concerned it is about gambling lose a lot of steam” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/17).

SYSTEM WORKS: YAHOO SPORTS’ Frank Schwab wrote whether it is then-Falcons WR Calvin Ridley, a former Alabama baseball coach, Porter or anyone else, the “salacious headlines subside and a rational truth emerges” that having legal sports betting in place is “what brought the scandal to light.” There have “undoubtedly been more scandals involving betting in the sports world” since the Supreme Court decided in 2018 to allow states to decide whether to make sports betting legal. Schwab: “Are the scandals happening because sports betting is more prevalent, or have there always been rule breakers who went unnoticed because sports betting was illegal outside of Nevada?” The system “might be leading to more athletes taking chances because it’s more accessible than ever.” But Porter got caught “because the system ultimately works.” All of the scandals were “uncovered because the entities involved were legal, and free to raise concerns to authorities.” There “will be more sports betting scandals,” as the “cautionary stories before Porter didn’t stop him from taking a shot” (YAHOO SPORTS, 4/17).

JUST THE FIRST: The GLOBE & MAIL’s Simon Houpt noted Porter is the first athlete to be “banned for life by a major North American league” since single-event sports gambling was legalized in the U.S. in 2018 and in Canada in 2021. His case is “just one of a series of high-profile betting-related scandals as sports gambling explodes in popularity” (GLOBE & MAIL, 4/17). In D.C., Ben Golliver noted the NBA has “avoided a major gambling scandal” since former referee Tim Donaghy pleaded guilty to federal charges after betting on games he officiated during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons (WASHINGTON POST, 4/17).

BEING TRANSPARENT: In Toronto, Bruce Arthur writes unlike other North American sports leagues, the NBA “revealed a raft of specific allegations.” It was a contrast with the NHL, which was “not exactly forthcoming” with Senators C Shane Pinto’s 41-game gambling-related suspension in Ottawa, and the NFL, which “tends to only offer broad outlines in its various gambling penalties.” Porter became the “perfect sacrificial lamb: a young player on a two-way contract on a bad team who made it comically easy to detect a problem” (TORONTO STAR, 4/18).

RAPTORS MARKED: In Toronto, Doug Smith wrote the Raptors are “stained by the first gambling scandal since the NBA fully endorsed betting on its games,” and their “due diligence on potential players has shown to be lacking.” Whatever investigations the team took into Porter’s character and history before signing him did “not go deep enough.” Hours before Porter’s ban was announced yesterday, Raptors Vice Chair & President Masai Ujiri said, “We all did due diligence and I think from all the reports and everything we had, I think this was nothing we could know about” (TORONTO STAR, 4/17). In Toronto, Steve Simmons wrote Ujiri “did his best to provide few specifics on the gambling scandal that he is now attached to via franchise name and team association.” Ujiri said that he “was surprised by Porter’s alleged actions.” Ujiri: “None of us saw anything like this coming. You prepare as much for all kinds of situations but you don’t see this coming.” Ujiri noted that he “has spoken to Porter,” but said he will “keep that in house” (TORONTO SUN, 4/17).