Athletes betting on sporting events in the United States has been a concern for 160 years. The indictment of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz on Sunday is the latest example of alleged sports gambling.
Clase and Ortiz are accused of rigging pitches thrown during major league baseball games, according to a 23-page indictment unsealed at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York.
The indictment stated that Clase arranged with a bettor as early as May 2023 to throw specific pitches for balls so the gambler could place prop bets and profit. Ortiz joined the scheme in June 2025, and between the two, gamblers won at least $450,000 wagering on their pitches, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, Clase and Ortiz were allegedly given kickbacks for their participation.
The pitchers have been on paid leave since July. They face charges of wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy related to a scheme to predetermine certain pitches that helped bettors win hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Some form of sports gambling is legal and regulated in 38 states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association that sports were allowed to regulate sports gambling. That decision overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, a federal law that had limited legal betting primarily to Nevada.
From the first “thrown” game in 1865, the 1919 Black Sox scandal, point shaving controversies in basketball and Pete Rose betting on baseball, gambling scandals have exposed the seamier underside of sports. Here is a look at betting scandals in U.S. sports through the years.
New York Mutuals (1865)
The first fixed game in baseball history occurred at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, on Sept. 28, 1865. According to the Society of American Baseball Research, three members of the Mutual Club of New York — catcher William Wansley, third baseman Edward Duffy and shortstop Thomas Devyr — accepted $100 from gamblers to throw their game against the Eckfords of Brooklyn.
The three players were banned from playing but were eventually reinstated by 1870.
Louisville Grays (1877)
It was the National League’s first major scandal. Four members of the Louisville Grays — pitcher Jim Devlin, outfielder George Hall, shortstop Bill Craver and substitute Al Nichols — were accused of throwing three exhibition and some regular-season baseball games and N.L. League president William Hulbert permanently banned the four players from organized baseball.
Black Sox (1919)
It was one of baseball’s biggest scandals. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox were banned for conspiring to lose the World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds. In late 1920, a Chicago grand jury indicted the players — including star “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who were then suspended by White Sox owner Charles Comiskey. Although the players were acquitted of all charges the following year, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned the “Black Sox” players for life.
Author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that the incident destroyed “the faith of 50 million people.”
The game-fixing scandal inspired the 1963 book by Eliot Asinof, “Eight Men Out,” which was adapted into a movie in 1988. In 1989, the film “Field of Dreams” referenced the scandal and the ghost of Jackson.
The ban remained in place until the players — along with the late Pete Rose — were reinstated by Commissioner Rob Manfred in May 2025.
College basketball point shaving (1951)
At least seven college teams were involved in a point-shaving scandal that broke in 1951. In 1950, City College of New York won both the NCAA Tournament and the National Invitational Tournament.
But in 1951, New York District Attorney Frank Hogan indicted players from four New York schools, including CCNY, Manhattan College, New York University and Long Island University.
In October 1951, University of Kentucky players Ralph Beard, Alex Groza and Dale Barnstable and charged them in connection with accepting $500 bribes to shave points in games, including a NIT game against Loyola of Chicago in 1949. Groza and Beard had been on two of the Wildcats’ NCAA championship teams (1948-49) and the 1948 Olympic gold medal team.
Kentucky also won the 1950-51 NCAA title.
An NCAA investigation led to violations, and Kentucky canceled its 1952-53 basketball season.
Groza, Beard and Barnstable received suspended sentences, were placed on indefinite probation and barred from all sports for three years. They were also suspended by NBA commissioner Maurice Podoloff.
Paul Hornung and Alex Karras (1963)
In 1963, Green Bay running back Paul Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras were suspended for one season after they admitted to betting on NFL games.
Hornung, the NFL’s “Golden Boy” who won the 1956 Heisman Trophy while starring at quarterback at Notre Dame, was the league’s MVP in 1961. Karras owned a financial stake in a Detroit-area bar that had reports of gambling. He would spend his season away from football as a professional wrestler.
“There is absolutely no evidence of any criminality,” NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle said at the time. “No bribes, no game-fixing or point-shaving. … All of these bets were on their own teams to win or on other NFL games.”
Hornung, who returned to lead the Packers to NFL titles in 1965 and ’66 but did not play in the inaugural Super Bowl, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985 and was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame the following year. Karras, who played for seven years after his suspension ended, would be posthumously enshrined in Canton in 2020. He would star in film and television, as the dangerous Mongo in 1974’s “Blazing Saddles” and as George Papadapolis on “Webster.”
Boston College point shaving (1978-79)
In 1981, former Boston College basketball player Rick Kuhn and four others — including mobster Jimmy Burke — were convicted of conspiring to fix games during the 1978-79 season.
The Eagles’ leading scorer, Ernie Cobb, and Jim Sweeney admitted to accepting money but denied participating in point shaving.
Kuhn was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Cobb was indicted and Sweeney was never charged. The three were permanently banned by the NBA for their connections to the scandal.
Burke, Paul Mazzei, Tony Perla and Rocco Perla also received varying prison sentences.
Pete Rose (1989)
Pete Rose, MLB’s all-time hits leader agreed to a lifetime ban for betting on games, including placing wagers on the team he managed, the Cincinnati Reds.
An investigation by attorney John Dowd determined that Rose placed bets on the Reds to win while playing and managing the team from 1985 to 1987.
“Charlie Hustle” was then declared permanently banned from baseball due to allegations of betting on MLB games while he played for and managed the Reds, including his own team. Not long after, the Baseball Hall of Fame decided to ban anybody who was on MLB’s ineligible list,
The ban was lifted after Rose’s death on Sept. 30, 2024. As in the case of the Black Sox, Rose was reinstated by Commissioner Rob Manfred in May 2025. He is now eligible to be considered for induction into Cooperstown.
Tim Donaghy (2007)
An NBA referee for 13 seasons, Tim Donaghy resigned after an FBI investigation that alleged he bet on games in which he officiated.
According to an ESPN investigation in 2019, Donaghy and Jack Concannon, a suburban Philadelphia insurance salesman, made their first bet in 2003. The investigation found that Donaghy adjusted his foul calls to prevent teams from beating the spread. The same pattern would occur over the next four seasons.
In 2008, Donaghy pleaded guilty to wire fraud and transmitting betting information for taking thousands of dollars from a gambler for inside tips on games. He also admitted to having a gambling addiction and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Calvin Ridley (2022)
Beginning in 2022, at least 12 NFL players have been suspended over betting allegations. The first one occurred on March 7, 2022, when the NFL announced that Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley would sit out the entire 2022 season because he bet on NFL games, including those involving his team. Ridley, who was a first-round pick for the Falcons in 2018 and now plays for the Tennessee Titans, was reinstated in March 2023.
According to an NFL investigation, the league determined that Ridley placed bets on games during a five-day stretch in November 2021, when he was on the non-football injury list to address mental health concerns.
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter (2024)
Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter for Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, was fired on March 20, 2024, for an alleged “massive theft” of funds from the ballplayer’s account to place bets with a bookmaker who was being targeted by federal authorities.
Mizuhara agreed to plead guilty three months later to one count of bank fraud and he was sentenced to 57 months in prison. He admitted to stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account, spending the cash to cover gambling bets and debts with the bookmaker, along with $325,000 worth of baseball cards.
Mizuhara did not bet on baseball; Ohtani was cleared of any wrongdoing, as it was ruled that he was a victim of Mizuhara’s gambling.
Jontay Porter (2024)
Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was banned for life from the NBA on April 17, 2024. An investigation determined that Porter told a sports bettor that he was injured, and that he removed himself from games on Jan. 26 and March 20 to control prop bets related to his play.
The investigation also stated that Porter bet on NBA games while he was playing in the G League, the NBA’s developmental league.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver called Porter’s actions “blatant.”
Tucupita Marcano (2024)
San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned for life for violating MLB’s gambling policy.
League officials said that during a one-week span in October 2022 and about four months in 2023, Marcano placed 387 bets totaling more than $150,000 on MLB and international baseball games. The wagers with a legal sportsbook included 25 on Pittsburgh Pirates games while Marcano was a member of the team; he was not playing at the time because of a knee injury.
Nearly all of the bets revolved around the game’s winner and the over-under on runs scored, officials said.
Rozier, Billups, Jones (2025)
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA star, coach and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups were arrested on Oct. 23, 2025, in connection with an FBI gambling-related probe, prosecutors said. They were among 34 persons indicted.
Former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones was also arrested.
On Jan. 30, Rozier was under federal investigation for possibly manipulating his performance in a 2023 game when he was with the Charlotte Hornets.
Billups, who was coaching the Portland Trail Blazers, was indicted for his alleged participation in a years-long scheme to defraud card players in poker games. The games allegedly involved numerous members of organized crime families in New York City.
Prosecutors said Jones allegedly provided inside information about NBA games to co-defendants who used it to place sports bets.
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