Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

MARK MINNELLA: When Money Replaces Integrity, Sports Collapse

(Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)

For generations, sports were one of the last places in American life where hard work, discipline and fair competition still mattered.

But now, like so much of our culture, professional sports are being corrupted by the power of money, and gambling is accelerating that decay at a dangerous speed.

The FBI arrested Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier in connection with alleged illegal gambling operations and a sports-rigging scheme that reportedly used inside NBA information. He is also allegedly connected to a wider criminal investigation involving organized crime.

Former NBA star and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups has now also been allegedly linked to Mafia-backed underground poker operations, raising further concerns about professional sports being compromised by criminal influence. These are not isolated scandals; they are symptoms of a deeper and growing problem. Gambling money has now wrapped itself around American sports, and the integrity of competition is slowly suffocating because of it.

So much so that we are beginning to see Federal agencies and Congress tightening their attention on the darker edges of sports gambling. The FBI has launched a Crime and Corruption in Sport & Gaming initiative to track illegal betting, match-fixing matches and games, and the use of insider information by athletes or league staff.

Working alongside the Justice Department, federal prosecutors are looking into organized crime, money laundering and unregulated betting platforms. Just recently, Congress has introduced bills like the SAFE Bet Act and Betting on Our Future Act, aiming to set national standards for advertising, age verification and college prop bets.

While these efforts face political headwinds, the message is clear: the federal government is shifting from passive observation to active oversight, seeking to protect both the integrity of sports and the public drawn into its fast-growing betting culture.

The Rozier and Billups investigations are not simply about players breaking rules; they reveal a system where insider access now has a price tag. When professional athletes, coaches or staff realize information can be sold for fast profit, temptation grows quickly. The purity of competition disappears. Once outcomes can be bought or influenced, trust is destroyed.

Meanwhile, professional leagues are not backing away from gambling; they are embracing it. The NHL recently signed multi-year deals with Kalshi and Polymarket, two real-money betting platforms. DraftKings has launched a peer-to-peer prediction platform, which allows users to wager against each other on nearly anything. Instead of taking a stand for integrity, sports organizations are cashing in. If integrity still mattered to these leagues, they would not be taking gambling money. They understand the risks. They know what gambling has done to boxing, horse racing and entire sporting cultures around the world. They simply choose money over principle.

Sports leagues regularly claim to stand for ethics, fair play and respect for the game, but their actions now reveal a different set of values. Betting money is too powerful. Television networks, gambling corporations and team owners are all profiting heavily from the expansion of sports betting. Integrity did not fade away by accident; it was replaced by financial interest.

When money becomes a nation’s highest value, higher than honesty, higher than character, higher than moral truth, decline is inevitable. What we are seeing is not just gambling expansion, it is a rewiring of American sports. Sports used to build men; now it recruits gamblers. It used to teach toughness and discipline; now it teaches speculation. Gambling rewards risk without responsibility. It promises profit without work. It feeds addiction and dependency. An industry that grows by preying on human weakness is not a healthy American institution; it is a predatory one.

If sports leagues want to save the integrity of the game, they must separate from gambling money immediately. They cannot be both regulator and profit participant.

This fight is not about gambling alone; it is about national character. Sports once shaped young men into leaders. Now it tempts them toward vice. A country that trades virtue for entertainment is not headed toward greatness. It is headed toward collapse. Scripture warns that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. That truth is playing out in real time. This is not about being against sports or even against personal freedom. This is about refusing to let greed rewrite what is good, honorable and worth preserving. America must choose integrity again. Because when money replaces virtue, something far more valuable is lost.

Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries (FISM) host Mark Minnella brings 35 years of experience helping individuals invest with biblical integrity. He was the founder and president of one of the first investment advisories dedicated to biblically responsible investing principles. A co-founder of the National Association of Christian Financial Consultants and creator of the CFCA designation, Mark has been a voice for biblical stewardship through radio, writing and speaking for over 30 years. He hosted “More Than Money” on Bott Radio Network for 17 years and is the author of “The Wall Street Awakening.” Mark and his wife, Cindy, live in St. Louis, MO, and have three grown children.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)