Post Reports – "Is the Gambling Explosion Ruining Sports?"

Date: November 18, 2025
Host: Elahe Izadi
Guest: Rick Maese, Washington Post Sports Reporter

Episode Overview

This episode investigates the rapid rise of legal sports gambling in the U.S., exploring its profound impact on the world of sports—from the way fans watch games to the integrity of the competitions themselves. Host Elahe Izadi speaks with sports reporter Rick Maese about why betting is now unavoidable for sports viewers, how high-profile scandals have exposed cracks in the system, and whether the gambling surge is fundamentally undermining the sports we love.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Modern Sports Betting Landscape

[02:20 - 05:51]

• Ease and Ubiquity of Betting:
  Betting has shifted from shadowy or illegal interactions with bookies to an accessible, legal, and mobile-centric industry.

  • “Everyone’s got a sportsbook in their pocket. Essentially…you can sit on your couch… and you can gamble on any sporting event you want anywhere in the world.” — Rick Maese [02:48]

• Explosion of Betting Options:
  Modern platforms offer a dizzying array of bets beyond just game outcomes, including "prop bets"—wagers on granular in-game events or stats.

  • “In a single football game, there is five to 800 different options of things you can bet on.” — Rick Maese [03:37]
  • Prop bets now include everything from “what color is the Gatorade going to be?” to how long the national anthem lasts.

• Addictive Appeal:
  The gamification and immediate feedback make sports betting especially captivating—and potentially addictive.

  • “Everyone should be worried about the addictive aspect of it… More and more people are struggling with addiction. They are betting money they don’t have.” — Rick Maese [06:35]

The Business and Regulation of Sports Betting

[07:55 - 10:59]

• Enormous and Growing Industry:
  $150 billion wagered last year; sportsbook profits reached nearly $14 billion, with industry growth at about 20% annually ([08:07]).

• Legalization and the Supreme Court:
  The 2018 Supreme Court decision striking down the federal ban was the tipping point, allowing states to legalize betting individually—unleashing industry growth ([09:01]).

• Shifting League Attitudes:
  Historically opposed and wary of gambling’s threat to “integrity,” leagues pivoted quickly to embrace the new revenue stream when it became inevitable.

  • “The horse is out of the barn. They're…cashing their checks, they're getting paid from all the sports gambling operations. They don't want to lose that revenue, but they also need to rein it in somehow.” — Rick Maese [10:39]

Scandals Rock the Leagues

[13:35 - 21:49]

• NBA Insider Betting Scheme:

  • NBA player Terry Rozier (Miami Heat) accused of sharing inside information with friends to influence prop bets about his performance. He maintains innocence, citing injury/illness ([14:19-15:09]).
  • Head coach Chauncey Billups implicated in sharing tanking info with bettors, further fueling suspicions around game integrity ([15:12-15:51]).
  • Billups and Rozier both on leave; both deny wrongdoing ([17:46]).

• "Operation Royal Flood":

  • Mafia-run, rigged poker games used athletes to lure wealthy players. Chauncey Billups alleged to have played a role, but was not with the NBA at the time ([16:32-17:39]).

• MLB Micro-Betting Scandal:

  • Two Cleveland Guardians pitchers (Emmanuel Clase, Luis Ortiz) accused of deliberately throwing a single ball on specific pitches—information then exploited for profit via micro-bets. Both plead not guilty ([19:36-20:15]).

• Regulatory Response:

  • MLB has limited prop bet amounts to $200 to reduce temptation for athletes and lower the potential payoff for manipulation ([21:49]).

Risks, Monitoring, and the “Wild West” of Sports Gambling

[22:15 - 24:07]

• Advantage of Legalization:
  Legal sports betting allows for transparency and monitoring of unusual betting patterns—leagues themselves, not the FBI, often detect suspicious activity—whereas with illegal gambling, such oversight wasn’t possible ([22:15]).

• Regulatory Gaps:
  The post-2018 patchwork of state-level legislation has led to calls for congressional action, but no federal framework exists yet; lawmakers are starting to ask questions ([23:26]).

Effects on Athletes and the Culture of Sports

[24:07 - 27:55]

• Social Media & Player Harassment:
  Players increasingly receive angry and sometimes violent messages from bettors due to lost wagers, blurring the lines between fandom and personal investment.

  • Anecdote: Golfer Scottie Scheffler received Venmo requests from losing bettors ([24:37-25:09]).
  • “While gambling always existed, fans and players never felt so close together where they can communicate and exchange ideas. And even if the athlete's not responding, he's hearing it.” — Rick Maese [25:19]

• Impact on Lower-Tier Athletes:
  The greatest risk for match fixing and manipulation lies not with wealthy stars, but with lower-paid or fringe athletes in less-publicized sports.

  • “If you think about who’s susceptible to a gambler, it’s… the college athlete… a low-level tennis player who’s just struggling to find his money to get to the next tournament…” — Rick Maese [27:06]

The Existential Question: Is Betting Ruining Sports?

[25:51 - 27:55]

• Engagement vs. Ruin:
  Rick Maese: “I don't think it has so far. I think it has given us another layer of engagement… But it also feels like we're on the precipice of this cliff where, like, it could go a way that none of us want…” [25:51]

• Integrity is Everything:
  Trust in the honesty of the game is paramount; if fans lose that, sports lose their value ([19:01], [19:13]).

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On gambling’s addictive nature:
  “I think everyone should be worried about the addictive aspect of it… There's more and more people talking about gambling addiction as a public health issue…” — Rick Maese [06:34]

• On regulatory challenges:
  “It’s been like the Wild West. The laws are different from state to state... People have been looking for some kind of, like, regulated, uniform framework, but no lawmakers have really said anything over the years.” — Rick Maese [23:26]

• On the integrity of the games:
  “If once you lose the confidence of the customer, of the sports fan, you know, your whole business is undermined.” — Rick Maese [18:42] “You might as well be watching WWE or Law and Order.” — Rick Maese [19:09]

• On fringe sports and vulnerability:
  “If you go on the app in the middle of the night, you'll see there's a table tennis match in Indonesia and people are live betting this match…” — Rick Maese [27:06]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:20]–[07:55]: How sports betting changed—mobile apps, accessibility, types of bets, and risk of addiction
• [08:07]–[10:59]: Market size, legal history, Supreme Court, the leagues’ changing stance
• [13:35]–[18:29]: Recent high-profile NBA and MLB scandals and league responses
• [19:36]–[21:49]: MLB’s micro-betting cases & regulatory reaction (betting caps)
• [22:15]–[24:07]: Role of transparency, monitoring, and lack of national regulation
• [24:07]–[25:35]: How betting has transformed player-fan relationships (including harassment)
• [25:51]–[27:55]: Is betting ruining sports? The pressure on vulnerable athletes and existential threats

Conclusion

The episode paints a nuanced picture: legal sports betting has revolutionized the fan experience and injected billions into leagues—but at a profound cost, creating both new avenues for engagement and new risks for corruption, addiction, and loss of faith in fair competition. The industry, fans, players, and lawmakers now face difficult questions about how much risk is tolerable—and whether action will come before irreparable harm is done.