Most infamous gambling scandals in sports history

Sports gambling may be legal across the country, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see gambling scandals every now and then.

Take a quick look through the history books and you’ll find that if there was a way to get the upper hand betting on a sporting event, both athletes and gamblers took advantage. With sports gambling legalized across the country, it’s important to look back at some of the biggest gambling scandals in sports history. Why? Well, you know what they say about people who fail to learn about history.

All-time MLB hits leader Pete Rose should probably be in the Hall of Fame, but will never be enshrined in Cooperstown because he couldn’t resist temptation. During his tenure as the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Rose bet on his team to win, every night.

While it’s comforting Rose had so much confidence in his team, it’s still wrong and he got exposed. Rose accepted a lifetime ban in 1989, and after years of denying any wrongdoing he finally fessed up to the whole ordeal 15 years later.

While Rose’s gambling efforts didn’t affect that many people, others have been involved in more serious scandals. None more so than the 1978 Boston College men’s basketball team. After getting involved with some pretty infamous gamblers, Boston College attempted to fix games, but missing wide open shots isn’t all that easy — especially when not everyone’s in on it.

Of the three players involved in the plan only one, Richard Kuhn, did jail time. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Kuhn was released after 28 months. The biggest thing to come out of this scandal? The 1990 classic mob film Goodfellas.

Referees always seem like prime suspect No. 1 when it comes to fixing games. Fans joke about it when a referee makes a bad call, athletes call them out after games, but it never actually happens, right? Wrong. NBA referee Tim Donaghy turned that into reality from 2005-2007, when he was investigated by the FBI for betting on games he was officiating.

Not only did the fallout create an absolute nightmare for the NBA, but Donaghy stirred the pot by suggesting referees were instructed by league officials to call games in favor of specific teams.

Of course, this led a lot of fans to dig into the archives to see where games were rigged. The best example was the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. Guess who the league wanted to win that series?

Last, but certainly not least, perhaps the biggest gambling scandal in sports history: the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds. In this infamous scandal, eight Sox players connected with gambling kingpins to fix baseball’s biggest event.

Did they succeed? Yes. Was it obvious? Absolutely. The White Sox were heavily favored in the series, but after they blew the first game 9-1, and allowed six walks in Game 2, it was apparent something was off. An investigation by the league led to all players involved being banned, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who would be a Hall of Famer if it weren’t for this black eye on his resume.

Making sports gambling legal may decrease this sort of misbehavior, but it will never fully solve the issue. We might never see something like the 1919 World Series again, but it’s inevitable there will be another scandal we’ll be talking about years from now.