ESPN Report Shows Legal Sports Betting Needed for Game Integrity
A report by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" program discussing the point-shaving scandal at Toledo carried a top NCAA official admitting legal sports betting sources to be a top aide in detecting gambling corruption. Despite disingenuous assertions by the NFL, NCAA, and an assortment of US sports leagues that legalizing sports wagering threatens game integrity, the report revealed that Nevada sports books are the leagues' best partner in preventing game fixing and point-shaving.
Bob Scucci, currently director of Boyd Gaming sports book operations, was in the lead as Stardust sports book director in detecting the Toledo discrepancy. After noticing a series of maximum bets placed against Toledo, Scucci notified the Nevada Gaming Control Board, leading to a federal investigation in which six players and two gamblers were indicted.
"We spend a lot of time in Vegas throughout the year visiting with oddsmakers and sports books... to make sure we have a good sense of what's going on," said Rachael Newman Baker, Director of Agents, Gambling, and Amateurism for the NCAA. Baker told host Bob Ley that Nevada sports betting operators have been "a great partner to us," and that they "both are interested in protecting the integrity of the game."
Scucci said the NCAA had realized over the last decade or so that sports books were on their side, and had developed a strong working relationship with sports betting operators, who acted as a first-warning system for the association.
"To be able to get down the amount of bets to make (fixing) worthwhile without raising a red flag to anyone in the (gambling) industry is a lot more difficult than anyone realizes," asserted Scucci.
OCA gaming analyst Sherman Bradley says this shows the only easy way to profit by fixing seems to be by placing illegal sports bets, yet leagues insist on aiding illegal books by blocking attempts to regulate sports gambling, such as the recent Delaware case. Such action by the NFL and other leagues shows they are more concerned with public perception than reality.
