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Mark Tatum, the NBA’s deputy commissioner and chief operating officer, advocates for a strong federal regulatory framework for legalized gambling in the United States. His comments came a day after a New York man was charged in a sports betting scandal that resulted in a lifetime ban for former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter.
Although Tatum did not comment directly on the criminal charges, he emphasized that the state-by-state legalization of sports gambling helped detect the irregularities leading to Porter’s ban and charges against Long Phi Pham. He stated, “The fact that we were able to look at certain irregularities in betting lines, and the data that we were able to receive from our partners allowed this to come into the light,” during a video conference call with reporters.
Tatum has been a long-time advocate for federal regulation, believing it creates transparency essential for maintaining the integrity of sports. “We’ve always been, again, an advocate for a federal regulatory framework here. I think it creates transparency that we didn’t have previously, which allows us to maintain the integrity of the sport, which is essential to all sports leagues.”
The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), enacted in 1992, effectively banned sports gambling in the U.S., except for sports lotteries in Oregon, Delaware, and Montana, and licensed sports pools in Nevada. However, a legal challenge by New Jersey led to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning PASPA in May 2018, citing conflicts with the 10th Amendment. Currently, sports betting is legal in some form in 37 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
“When the Supreme Court overturned PASPA in the U.S. that really left sort of two options, right?” Tatum explained. “Continue the illegal sports betting or embrace a legalized sports betting system so that, quite frankly, we could identify the sort of behavior that this uncovered.”
Online sports gambling is also legal in Canada, with Ontario opening its market to licensed private operators. Alberta and British Columbia allow it only through provincial agencies. In both Canada and the U.S., gambling is regulated through provincial and state agencies, creating a patchwork of laws governing the billion-dollar industry.
The charges against Pham are the first known criminal fallout from the Porter matter. Pham allegedly influenced proposition bets by convincing Porter to withdraw from two Raptors games. Although Porter is not named in the court complaint, details about “Player 1” align with Porter’s situation this spring. Brooklyn federal prosecutors declined to comment on whether Porter is under investigation.
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace commented on the case, saying, “Whether on the court or in the casino, every point matters.” He described the scheme as a “brazen, illegal betting scheme that had a corrupting influence on two games and numerous bets.”
The complaint reveals that the player communicated directly with Pham and co-defendants, whose names are redacted. After the NBA and others began investigating this spring, the player warned Pham and others via an encrypted messaging app on April 4 that they “might just get hit with a RICO” — referring to a potential federal racketeering charge — and asked if they had deleted “all the stuff” from their phones, according to the complaint.