The MLB Gambling Scandal Is Just Beginning

Every time another gambling scandal hits pro sports, people act shocked. I’m not. Not even a little. Once states started legalizing gambling left and right, this was guaranteed. And now we’re watching the consequences play out in real time.

Let me start with something simple: in every city where legalized gambling rolled out, crime went up across the board. Petty crime. Serious crime. Violent crime. All of it. Gamblers lose money, panic, and get desperate. When you’ve blown through your cash, maxed out your cards, and you need one more chance to “win it back,” you start making decisions you’d never even consider otherwise. I’ve seen people rob banks over a few thousand dollars. Students. Office workers. People with no criminal background at all.

So when you mix gambling with pro sports—an environment full of competitive personalities, big egos, big money, and constant pressure—you get exactly what we’re seeing now.

The Scandals Aren’t New—Only the Technology Is

When the NBA betting scandal broke a couple weeks ago, I said it was probably the tip of the iceberg. And here we are again—this time with Major League Baseball. The truth is simple: the more access players have to gambling, the more problems you're going to have. These guys are competitive by nature. They love action. They love risk. They love the rush.

And now they can bet on anything, anywhere, anytime—right from their phones.

Meanwhile, the leagues themselves are partnering with gambling apps and sportsbooks, taking in millions while telling the players, “Don’t gamble.” Think about that contradiction. Players aren’t stupid. Some of them resent it. They see these massive sponsorship deals, and they know the league is making money off bets placed on their performances.

So the temptation grows. And once someone does make that leap, they usually don’t do it for long before they get in too deep.

Prop Bets Are the Perfect Trap

If you’ve never looked into prop bets, go take a peek. They’re not bets on who wins or loses the game. They’re bets on tiny, individual moments in the game:

Will the next pitch be a ball or strike?

Will the next batter get hit?

How many pitches before the next walk?

These micro-bets are everywhere now. And they’re shockingly easy to manipulate.

Imagine you’re a pitcher. You’re in debt, or you’re trying to help someone out, or someone’s holding something over you. You tell a friend, “Next pitch is a ball. Bet on it.” You throw it outside. Simple. Fast. Hard to detect. And since prop bets aren’t tied to the final score, most people wouldn’t notice anything weird.

But sometimes things go wrong.

In this latest MLB case, the pitcher allegedly threw the ball out of the zone like he planned—but the batter swung anyway. Bet lost. Money gone. And suddenly the texts, the calls, the digital trail start to matter.

One of the strange things about this whole situation is that the indictment repeatedly refers to “Bettor 1” but doesn’t name them. Everyone else gets named—except that person. In my opinion, that usually means one thing: they’re cooperating. Maybe they got caught doing something else. Maybe they were squeezed. Maybe they were working undercover the whole time. I don’t know for sure, but I’ve seen enough of these cases to know when something smells off.

This Has Been Going On for Years

According to the indictment, some of these betting arrangements allegedly started in 2023. That’s multiple seasons before anyone got caught. Think about how much money someone could make during that time.

A pitcher throws hundreds of pitches in a month. Slip a handful of “controlled” pitches into that mix and no one notices. You don’t disrupt the game. You don’t alter the outcome. You just slide a few insider bets in and walk away with quick cash.

That’s why this is so dangerous. And it’s why, if investigators keep digging, they're going to find more. Plenty more.

And College Sports Might Be Next

Here’s the part that worries me even more: the NCAA now allows college athletes to gamble on professional sports. Not their own games, but still—this is a huge shift. These are young kids, many of whom are making real money through sponsorship deals now. They’ve got phones, pressure, and newfound freedom—exactly the combination that leads to bad decisions.

If the feds start watching college sports the way they’re watching the pros, I guarantee more scandals are coming.

The Leagues Know What’s at Stake

Here’s the brutal truth:

Sports can survive almost any scandal—steroids, fights, suspensions, personal misconduct.

But they cannot survive fans believing the game is rigged.

If people start thinking the outcome of a game isn’t real… the sport collapses. The entire foundation of competition disappears.

That’s why this is so serious. That’s why every new case matters. And that’s why the leagues, for all their talk about “integrity,” are now caught in a tough spot.

They want the betting money.

But the betting money is what exposes them.

And the players are the ones in the middle.

Where This Is Heading

If the FBI and DOJ keep poking around, more arrests are coming. More scandals. More headlines. Players think they’re invincible. They text things they shouldn’t. They talk to people they shouldn’t. They make calls they shouldn’t. They have no idea how easily someone in their circle could be an informant, a snitch, or an undercover agent.

And as long as gambling stays this accessible—and it will—this isn’t slowing down.

So my advice is simple:

Protect your career.

Protect your family.

Protect your reputation.

And stay far away from anything that puts you on the wrong side of this mess.

Once you’re retired, do whatever you want. But while you’re in the game, be smart. These scandals aren’t going away, and the consequences are only getting more severe.

Stay safe, stay grounded, and stay out of that trap—because once gambling gets its hooks in you, it doesn’t let go easily.