NBA’s Silver backs proposal for US sports betting czar

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took the stage on Tuesday in Las Vegas at a disconcerting period for sports integrity, as a spate of gambling scandals have left the public clamouring for widespread reforms across the US sports landscape.

Silver addressed the media at the Vegas NBA Summer League, as a host of current and former players face federal charges in a high-profile Brooklyn gambling case. While the local Vegas media pressed Silver on the league’s expansion plans, the NBA commissioner has also had to grapple with the alarming case – one that threatens to erode integrity across pro and college sports.

At a federal sports betting hearing in May, Senator Ted Cruz devoted a large chunk of his prepared remarks to his crusade to restore integrity to sports. Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, New York Representative Paul Tonko has likened the problem gambling crisis among teenagers to the tobacco epidemic in the 1990s. Finally, Carolyn Pokorny, a former New York federal prosecutor, has floated a model for a federal sports betting commissioner, one who would be given subpoena powers in comprehensive, multi-state investigations.

Silver, who backed the legalisation of sports wagering in the run-up to the 2018 PASPA decision, told iGB that he is in favour of certain aspects of Pokorny’s proposal. A staunch advocate of federal intervention in the sports betting market, Silver noted that a so-called sports betting czar could be helpful in facilitating investigations where the leagues are somewhat limited in scope.

“I’m very pro-regulation here, as you can hear, and I think more is necessary to get our arms around this,” Silver said.

Trouble in the EDNY

In recent months, the epicenter for gambling scandals nationwide has been a federal courthouse house in Brooklyn, where a bevy of defendants have faced charges in a parallel sports betting/ illegal poker investigation.

Over the last year, at least five NBA figures have been indicted in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on gambling-related charges. Three former players, Damon Jones, Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups, were arrested last October when the government unsealed indictments in the sweeping case. Two others, Malik Beasley and Ed Davis, were arrested in a separate sports betting scheme last month.

Jones, a former teammate of LeBron James in the mid-2000s, reunited with the NBA’s all-time scoring leader several years ago when he served as unpaid assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers.

In February 2023, Jones allegedly disseminated material non-public information on the injury status of a Lakers player to an illegal betting syndicate. From there, members of the syndicate are accused of using Jones’ intel to place a series of winning bets on the Lakers.

While the player is not identified by name in the indictment, it fits the profile of James. It is unclear if James has been questioned in the Jones’ investigation. James has not spoken publicly on if he feels victimised by the scheme.

More guilty pleas expected

Of the 30-plus defendants charged, Jones became the first to appear for a change of plea hearing. In April, Jones pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy in US v. Earnest, the sports betting matter. He also pleaded guilty to a separate count of wire fraud in US v. Aiello, the illegal poker case. Jones is scheduled to be sentenced in early 2027.

On Tuesday, hours before Silver addressed the media, prosecutors from the EDNY submitted a letter to US District Judge Ramon Reyes, the presiding judge in the poker case. Per the letter, prosecutors informed Reyes that the government is nearing plea agreements with 11 defendants, including Shane Hennen, a presumed ringleader in numerous gambling schemes.

A guilty plea by Hennen could serve as an inflection point for the prosecution since the he also faced charges in a prominent college basketball point-shaving case. In that case, at least 17 Division I basketball players from more than two dozen schools have been indicted for fixing basketball games throughout the nation.

Collaboration with other leagues

Beyond basketball, the Brooklyn courthouse is home to a case involving Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, both of whom face charges in a pitch-rigging scandal. Although the NFL is not embroiled in the current integrity matters, the league suspended 10 players in 2023 for sports betting-related violations. Also that year, the NHL suspended Shane Pinto of the Ottawa Senators for 41 games in a proxy betting case.

Asked if the NBA has any interest to form a coalition with the other leagues, Silver said the NBA could be “a party” to the idea. One option for the leagues involves an idea to form best practises for policies on insider trading, prop manipulation and prediction market abuses, among others.

For one, Silver finds prop wagers on an individual player’s “under” to be particularly “problematic”. A potential coalition could form baseline standards in an effort to remove certain bets from the market. While NCAA President Charlie Baker has urged Congress to place a federal ban on college props, the leagues have yet to make a formal request. The removal of all props from the US regulated market would have a significant impact on revenue for legal sportsbooks.

However, Silver is quick to point out that the NBA has “remarkably little control” over how its intellectual property is used by operators.

“We don’t get to make decisions as to whether prop bets can be placed,” he lamented.

Update in Porter case

Pokorny, the former Justice Department official, spent more than a decade in the Eastern District, including a brief stint leading the office. During her tenure, former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges and her office launched an investigation against Rozier. Porter holds the dubious distinction of becoming the first NBA player to be banned by the league for fixing a game since the PASPA ruling.

On Thursday, Ammar Awawdeh, a Queens individual, pleaded guilty to two felonies, including conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. Porter, according to prosecutors, amassed significant debts with Awawdeh, who encouraged him to extinguish the shortfall by leaving two games prematurely. The departure secured considerable betting profits for a syndicate. Porter has been deemed a victim of extortion by prosecutors and is awaiting sentencing on wire fraud conspiracy charges.

Last December, Pokorny co-wrote an op-ed in Dow Jones alongside Danielle Blustein Hass, her former colleague in the Eastern District. Pokorny modelled a comprehensive regulatory framework after one devised by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulatory organisation that provides oversight of brokerage firms and exchange markets. The securities industry established the model following a rash of repeated scandals, according to Pokorny. As with white-collar crime on Wall Street, she aims to clean up sports in the wake of recurring black eyes.

“The office would investigate integrity flags, coordinate with law enforcement, refer crimes for prosecution and recommend best practices to prevent future wrongdoing,” Pokorny wrote.

The debate on federalism

Last week, leading state legislators and regulators convened in San Diego for a semi-annual gambling conference. The event, the 2026 summer meeting of the National Council of Legislators From Gaming States, was held at the Hard Rock San Diego. As expected, a contentious discussion on prediction markets represented the most popular issue of the four-day conference.

Amid extensive litigation on the legality of sports event contracts, Kalshi and several state attorneys general have each notched key legal victories. The general consensus is that the matter will eventually reach the US Supreme Court. But a development in North Carolina last week created a wrinkle in the ongoing narrative. Under Governor Josh Stein’s fiscal-year budget, the state will impose a 6% tax on trading fee revenue from CFTC-licensed prediction markets.

Former Florida state Senator Steve Geller is the founder and general counsel of NCLGS. In Geller’s view, state jurisdictions “jealously guard” the regulation of sports wagering, an activity that has traditionally been left to the states. Geller does not take exception with state efforts to raise revenue by taxing prediction markets. Still, he believes the task of regulating sports betting should not be left to the federal government.

Establishing controls

Silver, meanwhile, has been continually in favour of federal standards for sports gambling. From an administrative standpoint, the NBA prefers one national framework, instead of having a patchwork approach from 40 distinct jurisdictions, he explained. In the midst of the prediction market explosion, Major League Baseball signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding with the CFTC earlier this spring. The agreement enabled MLB to designate Polymarket as the official prediction market of the league. Although the NBA engaged in negotiations with the CFTC in April on a potential MOU, the league has yet to form a pact.

While the NHL has partnerships with Kalshi and Polymarket, the NFL has remained mum on a possible deal with an exchange. Both Tonko and Cruz have submitted letters to the leagues for input on how to mitigate the risks of match fixing. According to multiple Congressional sources, there has been little movement since the Senate hearing in May.

Silver is the first league commissioner to comment on a potential coalition, along with the prospects of a sports betting czar. A coalition between the leagues could also address issues such as data monitoring, sanctioning against repeat player offenders and compulsive gambling, he suggests.

“We recognise this is a form of entertainment, but at the same time, people can get over their head fairly quickly, and those kinds of controls also need to be in place,” he said.

Matt Rybaltowski

Matt is primarily responsible for long-form feature coverage on complex sports betting scandals. He also provides coverage on finance, M&A and other technological developments.