On April 17th, crazy news came out that Jontay Porter, a center for the Toronto Raptors, was banned from the NBA. The reason is degenerate gambling. Even though he would be a millionaire very soon, Porter risked it all for a couple more thousands. Now you must be wondering what he was gambling on, and that answer makes it even more crazy. In a statement from the NBA, they said, “ Porter disclosed confidential information about his own health status to an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor; another individual with whom Porter associated with and knew to be an NBA bettor subsequently placed an $80,000 parlay proposition bet with an online sports book to win 1.1 million, wagering Porter would underperform, in the March 20 game.”.This begs the question: Where do we stand on sports betting?

Opinion-wise, there should be a rule so that if you can control the outcome, you can’t bet on it because if there wasn’t, this would be happening every day for sports players. Even going back, MLB Hall of Famer Pete Rose was banned from the MLB Hall of Fame because of illegal sports gambling. There have to be boundaries; these can include money amounts or a maximum on how much and on what they are able to gamble on. For example, the players can only gamble $100 on their teammate missing 5 shots but can bet $2000 for any other team to win. That’s just one of the multiple rules that could be put into place.