I’m all for sports betting, for now.

Every year, I host a March Madness survivor challenge with a $20 buy-in, live and die with your pick every day. Fantasy football is no different. Our league has a pot, and the winner takes a large chunk of it home.

I do not see harm in either of those propositions.

Obviously, the rules are different here in Idaho. Not that I was ever a prolific bettor, but that 2023 Miami Hurricanes Final Four future will certainly be missed.

The legalization of gambling was not revolutionary. Bets had been going on for years. Bookies, side action, friendly wagers, you name it. If you want to throw on a spread or player props, then by all means, you should be allowed to.

However, there are some serious dangers with the current state of sports gambling

Take ESPN. Long the gold standard of sports media, it has turned into a betting hub infested with lines, odds, and “experts and analysts” giving their “unbiased” predictions.

On NFL Draft night, aired by ESPN, there were lines on where Shedeur Sanders would go. The overwhelming favorite was that someone would select him in the first round. ESPN talked about him nonstop. For anyone watching, it felt like easy money to bet the under.

Sanders did not hear his name until the fifth round.

Now, maybe that was an honest mistake by ESPN. Perhaps they genuinely believed in him and saw no wrong in aligning those beliefs with their casino.

But, regardless of what happened, how can a media company be in bed with a sportsbook?

Sure, ESPN Bet is disbanding, but the company has partnered with DraftKings “to make it the exclusive official sports book and odds provider for ESPN.” It is a slippery slope to surround yourself with gambling and then act so bewildered when it infiltrates players.

Speaking of DraftKings, how is LeBron James, a current NBA player, allowed in their commercials? How is that not a clear conflict of interest? He is not able to use the app, but he can benefit from their advertising? Come on.

Beyond that distasteful relationship, athletes are actively partaking in gambling.

“Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were charged with fraud, conspiracy and bribery stemming from an alleged scheme to rig individual pitches that led to gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors Sunday,” ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote last Sunday.

This is not limited to ESPN, either. All the major outlets are involved with gambling. The MLB Postseason presented by FanDuel. The Stanley Cup Finals brought to you by BetMGM. Soon, Sally’s softball league will have a deal with a sportsbook.

These companies bit the apple, and now the snake has slithered out of the darkness.

Beyond the immorality of betting in media, what is in it for the players? Clase was set to make $6.4 million in 2026, and $10 million in both 2027 and 2028. Rozier signed a four-year, $96.3 million deal back in 2021. Are these guys really risking their reputation, status, and future for what ultimately amounts to pocket change for a multi-millionaire?

The stupidity of it is amazing, too. Remember Jontay Porter, the Toronto Raptors’ end-of-the-bench forward who “disclosed confidential information to bettors, limited his participation in at least one game while he was with the Raptors, and bet on NBA Games while playing in the G League,” wrote ESPN’s David Purdum in April of 2024.

These books are smart, and their tracking is excellent. They know who placed what bet and from where every single time. It never occurred to Porter that an influx of prop bets on a player as random as himself would not raise any red flags?

This is not Pete Rose, who always claimed that he bet on his team to win and not the other way around.

That is a separate conversation, but he was not actively rigging outcomes and stats like some of these guys today.

Did Clase and Ortiz intentionally throwing first pitch balls completely alter the course of the game? Maybe. Probably not. But even if it is not the most blatant act, it opens all of the wrong doors.

Gambling is a vice, and while I am not in favor of outright banning it, it has spread too deeply into our sports world. My biggest question with the Chauncey Billups incident was how far does it go?

If you are a professional league, how can you pretend integrity and fair play are core values while simultaneously promoting gambling?

Anyone found guilty of rigging games should receive a lifetime ban from their sport. This is not complicated.

Yet, gambling is legal, and it will stay legal. This unfortunate story is nowhere close to its end, and there will only be more athletes charged with nefarious involvement.

The sad part is, only the fans seem to care.