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The United Kingdom’s Parliament recently debated the link between gambling addiction and sentencing, considering a new clause that would introduce a “gambling treatment requirement” for offenders.
As part of a community order, the proposal states that courts could require offenders to seek treatment for gambling addiction through an National Health Service specialist service, which is a potential shift toward recognizing gambling disorder as a mental health issue within the criminal justice system.
The submission made by members of parliament led to the discussion around sentencing reform in general, with the topic of gambling and the NHS, or a professional clinic, mentioned to support those with an agreed condition.
UK Parliament discusses gambling addiction reform
The topic “gambling treatment requirement” was centered upon in relation to an order that has been decided through a judicial process. An individual who receives a community order through this process would, as part of the proposed amendments, need to seek clinical support.
“This new clause would introduce a new gambling treatment requirement, requiring an offender to seek NHS gambling addiction treatment as part of a community order,” read the official submission as part of Section 26.
The submission, which was discussed but not approved, put an onus on the UK government to find solutions to support those who would be termed as having a gambling addiction.
There would be pressure on the “Government to report to Parliament on how it will improve support for offenders with gambling addictions and ensure that gambling disorder is recognised as a mental health condition by sentencing court.”
The debate also calls for the Secretary of State to publish a report within six months of the Act passing, explaining how courts will handle gambling disorder as a mental health issue. The report would need to cover access to clinical advice and treatment for offenders, both in prison and in the community. It could be an early move toward linking criminal behavior more directly with mental health and treatment.
MPs highlight gambling issues and treatment
Dr. Alison Gardner, Labor representative from Stoke on Trent, made mention of her own “flutter” with gambling, but then discussed the pitfalls of gambling addiction and its wider impact.
She said, “Problem gambling is associated with not only acquisitive crimes, but street violence, domestic abuse and neglect. That, of course, leads to many harms for the person themselves, their families and the victims of their crimes.”
Assistant Whip and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Jake Richards, acknowledged Dr. Gardner’s proposals on gambling treatment but disagreed that they should be mandatory, citing pressures on current government systems.
“As I have discussed with her (D. Gardner), there is the issue of the scale of demand and the current lack of any reliable data on how this would look in the criminal justice system.”
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The Pennsylvania Gambling and Control Board (The Board) has announced fines of $72,000 have been issued as a result of three incident reports.
The enforcement action involves two casino locations in the Keystone State and one video gaming terminal (VGT) that were flagged by the Boards’ Board’s Office of Enforcement Counsel (OEC).
Pennsylvania Gambling Board issues fines
In a statement, the Board highlighted the VGT incident was located in Clinton County, under the licensee “Vasas, Inc. d/b/a Lucky Seven Travel Plaza in Lock Haven.”

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved three consent agreements today, totaling $72,000 in fines involving violations at a Video Gaming Terminal establishment and two casinos.
The Board also placed 11 individuals on its various Involuntary Exclusion Lists, prohibiting… pic.twitter.com/cDBIwQffHA
— Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (@PAGamingControl) October 22, 2025

The owners of the location would each be fined $2,500, with $45,000 being aimed at the license to operate the VGT.
The root cause, according to the OEC was a failure to have trained and “credentialed” employees on duty and that individuals under the age of 21 were able to access the VGT, with two separate occasions where minors accessed these terminals.
The OEC also informed the Board of two separate incidents at entertainment locations, resulting in consent agreements and fines.
Meanwhile, $10,000 in fines was issued to the operator Stadium Casino RE, LLC, of Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia, for allowing a deck of cards, which the OEC determined was “compromised.”
Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC was fined $12,000 for allowing an individual who was excluded access to the table environment and floor to gamble at Hollywood Casino York.
Individuals face sanction by PA Board
The “Involuntary Exclusion List” is maintained by the board and the recent fines were followed by eleven additions to this list. Three of the individuals left minors unattended in vehicles whilst they accessed casino locations.
Being added to the list means the person cannot wager in the state or use any terminals or locations to do so.
According to the report, they included “A male and a female patron who together left two children, ages 11 and 12, in a vehicle in the parking lot of Hollywood Casino Morgantown,” and “A female patron who left three children, ages 2,6 and 12, in a vehicle in the parking lot of Hollywood Casino York.”
The Pennsylvania Gambling and Control Board is strict in its enforcement of any incidents that involve minors as part of the “Don’t Gamble With Kids” campaign that highlights the dangers of leaving children unattended at these locations.
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Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, and former NBA star Damon Jones are three of thirty-one people charged on Thursday for allegedly turning professional basketball into what authorities describe as a criminal gambling operation that used inside information to place illegal bets.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the charges at a news conference in New York City, joined by other law enforcement officials. Patel called the arrests “historic,” and said that it involved the NBA and the organized crime group, La Cosa Nostra.
Patel added: “This is an illegal gambling operation and sports rigging operation that spanned the course of years. The FBI led a coordinated takedown across 11 states to arrest over 30 individuals today responsible for this case, which is very much ongoing.
“But we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra, to include the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families.
“The charges and arrests that were taken down across this country range from wire fraud, money laundering, extortion, robbery, and illegal gambling. This FBI will leave no room for any perpetrating of crime across this country.”

BREAKING — The Department of Justice is finally announcing something this morning, at 10a ET, that @pablofindsout has long been anticipating: “numerous arrests in illegal sports betting and poker games schemes.” (A lot more to come.) pic.twitter.com/qwdjt5dfbB
— Pablo Torre (@PabloTorre) October 23, 2025

Indictments against Rozier, Billups, and Jones
US Attorney Joseph Nocella announced indictments in two major fraud cases, one tied to sports betting and the other involving illegal gambling through rigged poker games. The intended losses were said to be valued at millions of dollars.
In the first case, Nocella said six defendants are accused of taking part in what he described as “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized.” According to him, the group allegedly used confidential information about NBA players and teams to gain an unfair edge.
The second case, Nocella said, targets 31 defendants who are accused of rigging underground poker games and stealing millions of dollars, operations that were allegedly backed by organized crime families from La Cosa Nostra.
He added: “These defendants, which involves former professional athletes, used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games, that were secretly fixed.”
He named former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jones, Eric Earnest, and Shane Hennen in both cases. Nocella also stated that Marves Fairley and Deniro Laster had been indicted.
Nocella said the whole illegal gambling scheme kicked off in 2019. According to him, the defendants ran the poker games from the Hamptons to Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan.
He explained that the victims, known as “fish,” were drawn into these games with the promise of playing alongside former pro athletes, the so-called “face cards,” like Billups and Jones.
Nocella added that the NBA was cooperating with their investigation.
Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones arrested by FBI
According to ESPN, Rozier was taken into custody Thursday morning (October 23) at a hotel in Orlando, Florida. The arrest came just hours after the Heat lost to the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night, a game in which Rozier did not play because of what was described as a coach’s decision.
Reports say Billups’ arrest isn’t connected to any games he coached. He was on the sidelines Wednesday for the team’s season-opening loss to the Timberwolves.
Sportsbooks in several states had flagged unusual betting activity on Rozier’s stats ahead of a Charlotte Hornets–New Orleans Pelicans game back on March 23, 2023. There was an unexpected rush of wagers – 30 bets placed within 46 minutes by one professional bettor totaling $13,759 – on the “under” for Rozier’s points, rebounds, and assists. The betting surge was so sharp that sportsbooks stopped taking bets on him entirely. During that game, Rozier, then with the Hornets, played only ten minutes before leaving with what he said was a foot injury.
Rozier’s attorney, Jim Trusty, told ESPN that his client had already met with both NBA and FBI officials several times in 2023. According to Trusty, “the initial investigation determined that he had done nothing wrong.” The NBA also said it had reviewed the matter at the time and found no violations of league rules.
Speaking about Rozier, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated: “As the NBA season tips off, his career is already benched. Not for injury, but for integrity.”
NBA places Rozier and Billups on immediate leave
The NBA has released a statement saying that it was “in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today.
“Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities.
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.”
Rozier’s career earnings
Now 31 years old, Rozier is in the final year of a four-year, $96.3 million deal he signed with the Hornets in August 2021. That March 23, 2023, matchup ended up being his last game of the 2022–23 season before Charlotte traded him to the Miami Heat in January 2024.
Over his career, Rozier has earned about $160,484,983 as of the 2025 season. That includes roughly $89 million over a five-year span and about $36 million over a two-year period. His projected base salary for the 2025–26 season is $26,643,031.
This new case appears to be connected to the betting scandal involving former Toronto Raptors center Jontay Porter. Porter was banned from the NBA in the spring of 2024 for taking part in a gambling scheme tied to player prop bets. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and admitted in court that he intentionally manipulated his performance in two games during the 2023–24 season. Porter is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
Four men, including Jontay Porter, have already pleaded guilty in the case, while two others have been named as conspirators and are reportedly in plea negotiations, according to court filings.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver talked about the issue on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, saying the league has been working closely with its sportsbook partners to stop any attempts at game manipulation.

“We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” Silver said. “We’re trying to put in place, learning as we go and working with the betting companies, some additional control to prevent some of that manipulation.”
UPDATED: Reports of Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones’s arrest was also added on October 23, as well as the latest comments from the FBI and the US Attorney General. A statement from the NBA has also been included. This story will be updated.
Featured image: Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0
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Wisconsin Representative Kalan Haywood has proposed a new bill to regulate online sports betting.
The bill, LRB-4723/1, would bring the Badger State in line with the thirty-eight other states that have some form of legislation in place to license and oversee gambling in the United States.
Haywood puts forward a new sports betting bill in Wisconsin
“This legislation is an important step to bring Wisconsin in alignment with the majority of the country in regards to sports wagering. For too long, illegal, offshore entities have profited from consumers through unregulated sports wagering, without generating revenue for local economies,” said Haywood.
Haywood’s regulatory push is aimed at bringing a controlled version of online sports betting into the hands of state consumers. The fine print would include that servers for any sports wagering option in the state be placed on Tribal Lands.
In addition to this the bill proposes the exclusion of an event or sports wager from the category defining a “bet.” An excerpt reads as “AN ACT to create 945.01 (1) (h) of the statutes; relating to: excluding” these wagers.
These types of wagers, the bill goes on to define are exempt if a “person physically located in this state using a mobile or other electronic device if the server or other device used to conduct such event or sports wager is physically located on a federally recognized American Indian tribe’s Indian lands.”
The Ho-Chunk Nation (HCN) in related betting news has also added a $610 million casino financial deal to build a marquee entertainment resort on Tribal Land in Beloit. Marking a significant investment in a new framework to host servers and have an on-site location for other betting offerings.
Haywood’s logic for the new bill, in addition to tackling black market gambling, is an attempt to direct legal gambling taxation to the state, Tribal and community resources.
He concluded, “By regulating this multi-billion-dollar industry, we can provide a safer mobile wagering experience for Wisconsin consumers, and generate much needed revenue to invest into our communities.”
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