What do you think? Is the football betting scandal an isolated case or the tip of the iceberg? Already doomed when working with gambling?

Translator's Note: This article was originally published on Yahoo, and the author is Ben Rohrbach. The data in the article are as of the time of publication of the original article (October 25, local time). The opinions in the article have nothing to do with the translator and the platform.

Truth or fiction: This NBA gambling scandal is "just the tip of the iceberg"

In 2021, the NBA announced that it would expand its cooperation with DraftKings and FanDuel, listing them as the league's "joint official sports betting partners." One of the companies said in a statement at the time: "The NBA season has just started, but we have already seen the direct impact this sport has on our customer base - in all states covered by our business, there are both significant user returns and healthy new betting activities."

Since then, the relationship between the NBA and the gambling industry has never been able to brake. Once embarked on this road, there is no turning back, unless there is a sudden change of course, but even so, it cannot prevent an inevitable collision: the NBA and the gambling industry are deeply bound, and the outbreak of scandal is inevitable. People are bound to be tempted, and as long as there is huge profit to be made, there will always be someone trying to take advantage of it. The NBA is not immune.

So what happened last Thursday: A total of 34 people were arrested in a large-scale fraud conspiracy, including Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones. Does anyone still think this is just the tip of the iceberg?

Billups is accused of luring a subject code-named "Fish," an unsuspecting player, into participating in poker games rigged through a variety of secret techniques. He also matched the description of "Co-conspirator No. 8" in a "separate but related" conspiracy - which involved leaking non-public information that was used to influence betting outcomes.

Both Rozier and Jones were allegedly involved in a conspiracy similar to the above-mentioned "leakage of information." It's a similar situation for former Toronto Raptors forward Jontae Porter, who has pleaded guilty to charges that resulted in his suspension from the NBA.

Are we to believe that out of the hundreds of NBA players and coaches—not to mention the thousands of team employees across the league who may have access to inside information—only a few were swayed by the lure of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars? Stop joking and wake up.

They are just people who were caught. This is the integrity dilemma facing the NBA today. In fact, this dilemma has existed since the referee gambling scandal in 2007. Even if those involved in these wrongdoings represent a small percentage of the entire NBA community (including players, coaches, staff, etc.), everyone would still think that the scope of the problem is much wider.

And this is indeed the case. In addition to the recently arrested Billups, Rozier, Jones and Porter, NBA free agent Malik Beasley is still under active investigation by the league. He is expected to earn tens of millions of dollars this summer, but he is suspected of participating in a similar (or even the same) federal investigation. His attorneys said recently that Beasley is no longer a target of the federal investigation but remains a subject.

Admittedly, betting scandals are nothing new to the basketball world. Such incidents date back to the NBA's founding, long before betting was legalized and the league established partnerships with the gaming industry. But what is clear is that in the few short years since the partnership was formed, the number of betting-related accusations has only increased.

The reason behind this is that the gambling industry is now fully regulated. It can certainly be said that the regulatory system is working as intended - regulators did detect some unusual activity within the industry.

Criminals will always try to manipulate the system, and some of them will inevitably be caught. Ideally, this would serve as a deterrent to those within the NBA who might consider taking the same risk. At least that's the theory.

But remember this: Billups earned more than $100 million throughout his career. Another former NBA player, Gilbert Arenas, who also earned more than $150 million in his career, was arrested in July in a separate case involving alleged poker gambling. If even they can't resist the temptation of gambling, then who else can? Low-level team employees who have access to the same information that Jones allegedly has access to are certainly no different.

All of this raises a question: Shouldn’t the NBA have in-depth cooperation with the gambling industry in the first place? You could argue that news like Thursday's would have happened regardless of whether the league partnered with DraftKings and FanDuel. But even so, this still feels like a money-making exercise that was never in the best interest of the NBA.

In any case, such incidents are bound to happen and will happen again.

As Leah Noll, director of the Center for Gambling Research at Rutgers University, told Business Insider this week: "This is just the tip of the iceberg - it's also the inevitable result when you promote the legalization of sports betting on a large scale."