The NBA has made the decision to ban Jontay Porter for life, resulting in the prosecution of multiple individuals who were reportedly pressuring him to leave games early. According to David Payne Purdum of ESPN.com, Long Phi “Bruce” Pham, Timothy McCormack, and Mahmud Mollah are facing criminal charges in connection with this scandal.
It is alleged that Mollah placed an $80,000 bet on Porter not achieving certain stats during a game against the Sacramento Kings on March 20. Porter left the game early, and Mollah ended up winning $1.12 million. The defendants are accused of influencing Porter to exit games prematurely in order to settle gambling debts.
While it may be challenging for one player to impact the outcome of bets on his team, player prop bets provide an opportunity to manipulate the system. Faking an illness or injury and failing to meet certain statistics can result in a payout for individuals betting the under. This scandal involving Porter and the defendants is not something that has been seen in the NFL thus far. However, if such a scandal were to occur in the NFL, it has the potential to cause significant upheaval within the league.
