There are professional gamblers who make tons of legal money selling their "lock of the week" betting advice to amateurs, not to mention the professional oddsmakers who literally have billions on the line. These guys openly promote their "inside information" and I've always assumed they find someone inside the organization — player, trainer, assistant coach, videographer, whatever — willing to confirm rumors or leak a little scuttlebutt, just like every journalist covering politics. So I'm not clear how some of these charges affect the integrity of the game, or even gambling, since knowing LeBron James isn't likely to play isn't the kind of lock you'd drop big money on. The charges didn't seem to include fixing prop bets like the case from last year. And the mafia fixing poker games doesn't have anything to do with basketball games. There's something a little janky about this.
But I did appreciate Charles Barkley acknowledging that he and Kenny and Shaq take the money to promote Draft Kings, Bet MGM, and ESPN's own gambling platform suggesting the whole system deserves some scrutiny, although Kenny tried to walk it back in the next segment.
