The world of regulated sports betting that opened when the US Supreme Court overturned PAPSA back in 2018 it inadvertently opened a Pandora’s Box of troubles for professional and college athletes. These woes ranged from prop-betting-related death threats to career-ending allegations of play impacted by gambling. And, according to some recent comments made by NBA star Michael Porter Jr. on the One Night With Steiny podcast the situation, “…is only going to get worse.”
Porter, who has never been accused of any sport betting related wrongdoing, is the brother of Jontay Porter. Jontay was banned from the league for allegedly pulling himself out of a game to benefit prop bettors. Michael said this is indicative of a new world order in basketball where, “The enjoyment of the game isn’t for the game anymore. It’s so that people can make money. In reality, way more people are losing money than making money.”
He went on to say that many athletes come from low income backgrounds and feel pressure to help out their friends, even if it involves a bit of wrongdoing, “Think about it, if you could get all your homies rich by telling them, ‘Yo, bet $10,000 on my under this one game. I’m going to act like I’ve got an injury, and I’m going (to) sit out. I’m going to come out after three minutes,’ And they all get a little bag because you did it one game.”
Michael did emphatically add, “That is so not OK, but some people probably think like that. They come from nothing, and all their homies have nothing.”
A number of state governments seem to be thinking along these same lines and several of them are looking at banning individual player prop bets entirely.