The problem, if we admit it, is the lack of education for players, Mike Florio wrote in his story about NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s talk to the Associated Press Sports Editors Convention. The lack of such an approach opened up a can of worms for the NFL.
But all leagues need to improve their educational programs, NBA Silver warned.
“I think there’s a responsibility for these leagues to invest more in education, not just our own players, but of young people who might be doing something inappropriate or anybody who might be engaging in problematic gambling,” Silver told the Associated Press.
The other issue Silver touched on was insider information.
“I think that public markets worked very well in this country,” Silver said. “But the other side of a public market is the potential for insider trading. And there’s very sophisticated algorithms, etc., that track it. It’s not that different in sports now, especially when you get higher volumes of betting. You have very sophisticated computers; when they see aberrational betting . . . you’re going to get caught.”
Florio said, if there’s possibly a way to pinpoint the person placing a bet with inside information, perhaps the source of the post can be traced. All leagues need to safeguard the misuse of insider information to avoid a potential major scandal in the legalized gambling era.
