NBA Releases Memo Amid Gambling Scandal and FBI Investigation

While the opening week of the 2025–26 NBA season was full of incredible games and individual performances, the excitement was slightly overshadowed by the FBI’s arrest and investigation of multiple current and past NBA players and coaches in relation to illegal sports gambling and poker games.

Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are the biggest names to have been arrested, but this investigation could throw complete chaos into the NBA. 

The NBA sent a memo out to its teams on Monday addressing the situation.

“Given the spread of legal betting to the majority of U.S. states, the recurrence of integrity issues across sports, and the emergence of novel betting formats and markets, this is an opportune time to carefully reassess how sports betting should be regulated and how sports leagues can best protect themselves, their players, and their fans. While the unusual betting on Terry Rozier's "unders" in the March 2023 game was detected in real time because the bets were placed legally, we believe there is more that can be done from a legal/regulatory perspective to protect the integrity of the NBA and our affiliated leagues. In particular, proposition bets on individual player performance involve heightened integrity concerns and require additional scrutiny.

We have also begun a process of reviewing league policies regarding injury reporting, the training and education of all NBA personnel, and safety measures for NBA players. With sports betting now occupying such a significant part of the current sports landscape, every effort must be made to ensure that players, coaches, and other NBA personnel are fully aware of the dire risks that gambling can impose upon their careers and livelihoods; that our injury disclosure rules are appropriate; and that players are protected from harassment from bettors.

We also are exploring ways to enhance our existing internal and external integrity monitoring programs to better utilize AI and other tools to synthesize all available data from betting operators, social media, and other sources to identify betting activity of concern.”

From this memo, it seems like the league is taking this situation extremely seriously. Will they continue to make money from gambling advertisements? Absolutely. However, at a minimum, it sounds like they want to cover their own tails from the potential dangers that legalized sports betting may cause.