Jontay Porter Archives - US Sports News

Man Charged for Involvement With Jontay Porter Sports Betting Scandal

Long Phi Pham, a 38-year-old man from Brooklyn, was busted Tuesday for allegedly teaming up with Jontay Porter in the former Toronto Raptors forward's sports gambling scheme that resulted in a lifelong ban from the NBA.

Pham is accused of placing prop bets on statistical categories that he knew Porter would finish with the betting under. In a contest Jan. 26 against the Los Angeles Clippers, Porter allegedly told Pham that he was going to claim an injury and take himself out of the game early. Porter played four minutes and logged zero points, three rebounds and one assist before exiting. He did it again March 20 against the Sacramento Kings, playing under three minutes and grabbing two rebounds.

Pham and a group of other bettors netted over $1 million in profits, according to prosecutors.

The 38-year-old was caught Monday while trying to board a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Australia with $12,000 cash, two cashier checks worth $80,000 and multiple bettling slips.

Pham, accused of conspiring to defraud a sports betting company, faces up to 20 years in prison.

Porter is the brother of Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. Jontay Porter played 11 games for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2020-21 and 26 games for the Raptors last season before being banned.

3 May 24 Jimm Sallivan

Jontay Porter Scandal Could Spark Changes to NBA Player Props

If the over/under on the number of betting scandals it would take a professional sports league to reexamine its gambling ties was set at 1.5, the under would have hit.

Following the lifetime ban of Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter, the NBA is in discussions with sportsbook partners to figure out some changes that might prevent another scandal.

According to ESPN, the NBA is looking for ways to tweak betting menus including, "prohibiting betting on players on two-way contracts between the G League and the NBA," and "not allowing bets on the 'under' on a player prop."

However, there are concerns that limiting what consumers can gamble on might push them back into the arms of unregulated sportsbooks. For example, the kind of off-the-books bookie that took the action of Shohei Ohtani's translator, Ippei Mizuhara.

Legalized sports gambling has been spreading rapidly since the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act 2018. While 38 states (plus the District of Colombia) have legalized gambling, there are still plenty of states dragging their feet to get involved. Possibly because there are so many kinks to work out where it is legal.

In the meantime, leagues are desperate to find ways to keep something like the Porter situation from happening again because there's so much money at stake. Where once we were inundated with daily fantasy sports ads, we're now subject to nonstop legal gambling ads. Sportsbooks advertise everywhere and there's a huge push to make gambling more accessible everywhere. It's where all the money is right now, and it's new and exciting and everyone wants to be involved and no one wants to miss out.

Things like the Porter scandal put it all at risk. That's why leagues have to do whatever they can to make sure it doesn't happen again. Even if they know deep down it probably will.