Pro sports feels harsh spotlight of gambling scandals, now visible in legal market

Well-paid athletes should‐ n't be likely to run into trouble with gambling, right?

Tell that to Shohei Ohtani, the MLB superstar with a $700-million US contract, whose former interpreter stands accused of illicitly tak‐ ing over $16 million US from the ballplayer's bank account - allegedly to pay off his own gambling debts. U.S. authori‐ ties say Ohtani didn't know about the activities.

The NHL's Shane Pinto, meanwhile, saw his hockey season and his $775,000 US salary cut in half, due to a gambling-related suspension for the Ottawa Senators for‐ ward, though there was no evidence found that he'd bet on NHL games.

There's also Jontay Porter, until recently a Toronto Rap‐ tors player, who reportedly banked more than $2 million US in earnings during a short pro career that has come to a crashing halt. He's now ban‐ ned for life from the league, after an investigation deter‐ mined that he had bet on NBA games and limited his time on the court - on at least one occasion - for betting purposes.

WATCH | A lifetime ban for Jontay Porter:

With top-tier pro leagues dealing with a mounting se‐ ries of gambling-related scandals, it raises the ques‐ tion of what, if anything, can be done to limit future episodes of this nature.

Jeremy Luke, president and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), isn't surprised at what has occurred. And he expects to see more of the same, un‐ less sports organizations and authorities take steps to edu‐ cate players about gamblingrelated risks and to ensure relevant policies are in place to prevent competitive ma‐ nipulation and match-fixing.

"Until we do that, I think this could be the tip of the iceberg," said Luke, who be‐ lieves Canada has been slow to see the full risks that gam‐ bling can pose for athletes, at various levels of competition.

Big money, big growth

Sports gambling wasn't broadly legal in much of Canada or the United States until relatively recently. The industry has grown rapidly in the wake of these changes.

The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for individ‐ ual states to permit sports betting in 2018. Nearly 40 states now allow it.

Canada legalized singleevent sports betting in Au‐ gust 2021, and, the following spring, Ontario was the first to launch a regulated sports betting program.

Ontario bettors are now placing billions of dollars in wagers on an annual basis though the full-court press on the promotional front for sports betting has led to pushback from sports fans and politicians alike.

Brian Masse, a New Democrat MP from south‐ western Ontario who advo‐ cated for the legalization of sports betting, believes the advertising needs to be fur‐ ther tamped down, despite tightening of regulations that has occurred.

"I find it absurd that they have commercials on about gambling during the actual game," said Masse, whose Windsor West riding is home to a casino.

LISTEN | Time to cut

aback on game-time gam‐ bling ads?:

Masse says the move to bring sports betting into a le‐ gal arena has potentially made scandals more visible to the public, as a part of a general culture shift.

Michael Naraine, an asso‐ ciate sports management professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., agrees: "These are the types of things that were obviously going to come to the fore‐ front with a legal, regulated marketplace."

Research and education

But Naraine sees a need for the Ontario government to do more - in particular, to allocate needed funding for research about sports gam‐ bling and education, too.

Jack Fazzari, a spokesper‐ son for Ontario's attorney general, told CBC News that the provincial government re‐ cently invested $9 million in the Responsible Internet Gambling Fund "to improve outreach and education cam‐ paigns on gambling."

Naraine said it's not just athletes who need to under‐ stand the risks associated with sports gambling, but al‐ so consumers - including mi‐ nors who will eventually be part of the next generation of gamblers.

Athletes, however, need specific guidance on what is definitely considered out of bounds.

Jim Brown, a sport-in‐ tegrity executive at tech‐ nology firm Sportradar, said via email that athletes need "continued, targeted educa‐ tion" covering "sports-betting rules and regulations, their personal responsibilities, and how to guard against matchfixing approaches."

Brown said data from the global sport world shows that "higher salaries for ath‐ letes act as a deterrent for match-fixing," though that doesn't mean high-level ath‐ letes are "immune" to it.

And while deep-pocketed leagues have the capacity to educate players and to put preventative measures in place, he said these re‐ sources may be "lacking or non-existent" below the top levels of sport.

Stronger policy

The CCES's Luke concurs that having a legal market has allowed for some guardrails, but the major money that sports gambling attracts and the promotional hype driving participation contribute to its risks.

This week, the CCES is‐

More than 30 European nations, as well as Australia and Monaco, have signed on to the treaty that aims to clamp down on match-fixing, and work to prevent it from occurring, via co-operation between authorities, sports leagues and gambling opera‐ tors.

"Competition manipula‐ tion is a major threat to the integrity of sport worldwide. There is a direct link between sport betting and competi‐ tion manipulation," Sports Minister Carla Qualtrough told CBC News in an emailed statement.

"The highest principle of sport is fair competition - a standard that needs to be maintained at all times."

Qualtrough said Ottawa is "engaging on the internation‐ al stage to address the threat of competition manipulation, and we hope to have more to share on that in the near fu‐ ture."

The minister also said the government is committed to working with the provinces, territories and stakeholders "to address the prevalence and promotion of illegal sport betting in Canada."