NBA gambling scandal shines harsh light on US sports’ embrace of betting

<p>Two sweeping federal indictments have implicated big names in basketball and raised uncomfortable questions about who benefits from legalized gambling</p><p>The NBA gambling scandal <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/23/heats-rozier-and-blazers-coach-billups-reportedly-arrested-over-separate-gambling-claims">is the biggest story </a>of the year in US sports, a culmination of the years-long embrace between professional leagues and the multibillion-dollar gambling industry that has now crossed the line from synergy into scandal.</p><p>In two sweeping federal indictments unsealed in Brooklyn <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/23/heats-rozier-and-blazers-coach-billups-reportedly-arrested-over-separate-gambling-claims">on Thursday</a>, prosecutors charged more than 30 people – including the Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA player and assistant Damon Jones – with schemes that turned inside information and rigged card games into engines of profit for organized crime.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/24/nba-gambling-scandal-sports-betting">Continue reading...</a>