The NBA was rocked on Thursday morning, when it was announced that 30 people, including current Portland Trailblazer head coach and Hall of Famer, Chauncey Phillips, and current player Terry Rozier were arrested on gambling related charges. The arrests also included a number of mafia members from various mafia families.

Pro sports has bought into gambling, in a big way. You watch any sporting event on TV and you will see gambling commercials. One can bet on almost anything, in sports. If you have insider information, which occurred here, you can make a mint.

Let’s go with the simplest of examples. One bet can be betting on how many points a basketball player will score in a specific game.. It is called over or under. Let’s say the number is set at 12 points. A gambler can bet whether that player will score either over or under 12 points in that specific game. It is alleged that Terry Rozier, told gamblers that he would fake an injury early in a game guaranteeing that he would not score 12 or more points. These gamblers, having this inside information, would then bet on the under 12 points and win their bet.

So this involved, both insider information and a player participating in the gambling outcome.

That is by far the simplest example example. Sports gambling is a multi billion dollar operation. What happened Thursday is sending shockwaves not only through the NBA but through all sports. The only real way to handle it is to eliminate gambling completely, and that is never going to happen. But at the same time, it cannot become a necessary evil. This is also not a one day news story. It will be interesting to see what else this ongoing investigation will produce, and how all sports leagues will react to it.

That’s all I have for today.