It’s very difficult for individual players to rig the outcome of games. It’s very easy for individual players to rig the outcome of their individual prop bets.
The NBA is currently embroiled in scandal because of it. For other sports, it easily could happen. For some of them, it possibly already has.
MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark favors getting rid of prop bets entirely.
“We’re in support of removing [any types of bets, prop or otherwise](https://frontofficesports.com/mlb-union-chief-on-alert-as-nba-gambling-scandal-unfolds/), that could create issues for our guys on the field,” Clark said Friday, via Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com. “We’ve heard a lot about prop bets of late, and it was one of the things we were concerned about from day one as well.”
Beyond the very real temptation for rigging prop bets, the players themselves become the targets for harassment and threats when their “overs” fail to hit. The NCAA, mainly for that reason, has been working against prop bets for months.
Baseball has been dealing with its own prop-bet-based gambling scandal, following the paid suspensions of a pair of Cleveland Guardians pitchers who possibly were involved in rigging prop bets based on specific pitches.
Of course, the mere mention of eliminating prop bets will trigger those in the media who make money from associations with sportsbooks, and from those gamblers who find it “fun” (even if far from profitable) to make wagers that are wholly unrelated to the overriding purposes of team competition. One common argument is that, without the ability to place such bets legally, people will do it illegally.
That’s an extremely unrealistic take. Would people who can easily bet on anything/everything with their phones go and find a bookie for the purposes of betting a sawbuck on whether Saquon Barkley will run for more than 83.5 yards against the Giants?
While legalized gambling has reduced the amount of illegal gambling, it has resulted in an explosion in the number of people who are gambling, because it’s now very easy to do it. Peeling prop bets away from the menu of wagers on their smartphones won’t send them careening into the arms of Nicky No-Nose, who’ll embrace them with a gold chain, a single eyebrow, and the distinct whiff of Aqua Velva.
Legalized betting is a way for people to gamble without “[breaking the law](https://youtu.be/BbLl4QnakEo?si=HmOvrUoIkDzhENeS&t=28).” Taking away the ability to click, click, click on prop bets won’t send them to the wrong side of the tracks.