MLB's Gambling Problem

The league suspended five players yesterday for betting on baseball. Its coziness with sports betting sites like DraftKings and FanDuel guarantees more trouble.

Journeyman infielder Tucupita Marcano received a lifetime ban for betting on baseball yesterday (Photo by Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Let’s start with the facts: rule 21 in the MLB bylaws states that any player who bets on a Major League Baseball game involving his team will receive a lifetime ban. So if, say, a Seattle Mariner places a $3 bet—even through a legal sports betting outfit like FanDuel or DraftKings— that Julío Rodriguez will hit a home run that day or George Kirby will go six innings, he will never be able to hold a job in MLB ever again.

Rule 21 also states that if the same Mariner player bets on another MLB game involving teams that aren’t the Mariners, he is subjected to a one-year ban. (I’m using the Mariners as an example here because they are not implicated in this current mess).

This rule is taped to the wall on a big fat poster in every clubhouse across MLB. During spring training, a league official even comes in and lays down the law so that everyone understands: betting on every other sport but baseball is fine and even encouraged! But wagering on baseball equals suspension and/or expulsion from the game.

It’s become increasingly important to remind players not to bet on baseball because of the mixed messaging the league is sending on the matter. Yesterday as news broke that five players had been suspended or banned from baseball for gambling on the sport, I turned my television to MLB Network for more info. As the broadcasters discussed the morning’s distressing news, the ticker at the bottom of the screen showed nothing but information on betting lines for the day’s slate of games next to a big fat FanDuel logo. The effect was disorienting. The message seemed to be: “These five guys did a very bad thing and should be shamed and punished. However, we are begging you, as fans, to do the thing they did to line the pockets of our corporate sponsors so that we can continue to exist.”