Top 10 Biggest Gambling Scandals of All-Time

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Top 10 Biggest Gambling Scandals of All-Time

05/26/2008 9:48 PM · RJ_Bell

With seemingly never-ending revelations in the Tim Donaghy betting scandal, it's important to gain perspective on just how big this story is relative to the biggest gambling scandals of all-time.

Top 5 Game-Fixing Related Betting Scandals:

5) Connie Hawkins (1959-61)
Thirty-seven players from 22 schools were implicated in point-shaving scandals, including New York playground legend Connie Hawkins, who was named to the Top 10 High School Athletes Ever by ESPN. Despite never being charged, Hawkins was expelled from the University of Iowa, blackballed from the NBA, and was relegated to touring with the Harlem Globetrotters.

4) Tulane Basketball (1985)
John Hot Rod Williams was arrested in March of 1985, indicted on sports bribery and conspiracy. The case ended in mistrial, and was never retried. Four Tulane starters were suspected for point-shaving. Two of those players were granted immunity to testify, detailing payoffs made in cash and cocaine. Tulane shut down its basketball program (not resuming till 1989). Hot Rod went on to a 13 year NBA career.

3) The GoodFellas Fix
Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta in the Martin Scorsese movie, worked with other mob members to fix nine Boston College basketball games. Player Rick Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in prison the most ever for point-shaving.

2) College Basketball Point-Shaving (1951)
Between 1947 and 1951, 35 players conspired to fix 86 college basketball games. 14 gamblers were convicted. A number of New York City schools were involved; basketball was never the same in the Big Apple again. Kentucky, which won NCAA Titles in 1948, 1949, and 1951, received the first "Death Penalty" in NCAA history.

1) Chicago White Sox (1919)Known forever as the "Black Sox" - the successful effort to fix the World Series was dramatized in the movie Eight Men Out. "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, and seven other members of the team were given lifetime suspensions from baseball. Jackson's career batting average of .356 is the third highest in the history of baseball.

Top 5 Non Game-Fixing Betting Scandals:

5) Rick Tocchet (2006)
Assistant coach for the hockeys Phoenix Coyotes, Tocchet was accused of financing a national gambling ring involving half-dozen NHL players betting on pro and college sports (but not hockey). Legend Wayne Gretzky was mentioned in the initial press reports, but was never connected to the misconduct. Tocchet plead guilty to the charges, and was sentenced to two years probation.

4) Leo Durocher (1947)
The Brooklyn Dodgers manger was suspended for the 1947 season for consorting with gamblers, and thus engaging in conduct detrimental to baseball. Durocher is said to have run rigged craps games that scammed at least one active ballplayer out of large sums of money. 1947 was Jackie Robinson's historic rookie season, and the Dodgers lost a 7-game World Series to the Yankees that same year.

3) Art Schlichter
A four year starting quarterback at Ohio State, Schlichters career and life have been destroyed by compulsive gambling. He was picked 4^th in the 1982 NFL Draft by the Colts. First suspended for gambling in 1983, he was released in 1985, and never played in the NFL again. Schlichter has served significant jail time, admitting to over 20 felonies and stealing over 1.5 million dollars over the years to feed his addiction.

2) Paul Hornung and Alex Karras (1963)
Fined and suspended for a full season by the NFL for betting on their own games. Hornung won the 1961 MVP playing for the Packers, and Karras was an All-Pro DT for the Lions. Back playing in 1964, Karras refused when an official asked him to call the pregame coin toss: "I'm sorry, sir," he said. "I'm not permitted to gamble."

1) Pete Rose (1989)
The all-time MLB hit leader was placed on baseballs permanently ineligible list for gambling on sports (barring his inclusion into the Hall of Fame). He denied betting on baseball, but in 2004 admitted to betting on (never against) the Cincinnati Reds while their manager. The issue of his reinstatement and election into the Hall of Fame remains a highly debated in the baseball world.

Where does Tim Donaghy and the NBA referee scandal fit into all of this? The key is whether he acted alone, or whether the corruption was widespread . . . We will be watching . . .

Topics: Tim Donaghy Gambling Scandals NBA

RJ_Bell

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RJ Bell is the founder of Pregame.com – a two-time INC. 5000 company, as well as the largest American digital media organization covering Las Vegas news and odds. Pregame is the exclusive odds provider... Read more