Chris Boline
When it comes to people betting on sports in California, the wait continues and continues. With that said, we all know that there are countless illegal bets being made every single day. With this, some disappointing news has come in for officials: 5 men busted for illegal California sports betting ring. This news just dropped last week and people aren’t happy about it whatsoever.
According to multiple reports this illegal sports ring even included former MLB players, and they worked closely with other former players to get these bets through. All in all, Wayne Nix, Edon Kagasoff, Howard Miller, Kenneth Arsenian and Joseph Castelao were the ones who went down for their roles. They’ll all been busted by federal authorities and they’re facing some serious consequences.
“In documents unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, the principals of the operation agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges and admitted they took in millions of dollars in bets, many of which were facilitated by a Costa Rica-based website,” the DOJ said. “One of the leaders also admitted that he failed to report to the IRS nearly $1.5 million in income he received from the gambling scheme over two years.”
As you can see from the statement made by the Department of Justice in a press release, this scheme took place for years and was in the millions. Obviously, this is horrible news for people in California, as it’s clear that this isn’t an isolated incident. These kinds of illegal sports bets are only going to continue until things are regulated. The fact that a Costa Rica site was involved is bad too.
NEW: Late yesterday, Federal authorities announced a series of cases related to a multi-million dollar sport gambling operation involving current and former professional athletes.https://t.co/qr2j6hiqYU
— Stephanie Weissenburger (@SWeissenburger_) April 1, 2022
Illegal sports betting is only getting worse in California
It goes without saying, but illegal sports betting is only getting worse in California and there’s a ton of concern about just how badly things could spiral. During the NFL season, it’s no secret that people find an unreal amount of ways to bet on football. With California featuring the LA Rams, LA Chargers, and San Francisco 49ers, the fan bases will always try and make some money off wagers.
For the Rams, they saw their Super Bowl odds skyrocket throughout the year and they actually went on to win it all. Meanwhile, for the other LA team, the Chargers have high Super Bowl odds for 2022 thanks to all the great moves they’ve made this offseason. This of course included trading for Khalil Mack, signing star cornerback J.C. Jackson and finalizing an extension with stud wideout Mike Williams.
With so much excitement for the upcoming football season, and the Rams hoping to repeat as champs, you know there’s going to be so many people excited to place bets all over California. The main issue with that is that it’s still illegal and may not be able to get pushed through until next year. With this, there will be a rise in illegal sports bets. The better the teams are, the more wagers will come in.
This is something California lawmakers understand, which is why they’re trying to get things changed as soon as possible. The longer we wait for this, however, the more chances people will have to go through illegal bookies, check odds and put money on the line. This is a problem that isn’t going to go away until things are flipped in the state and betting on sports is made legal.
Five men in a Southern California gambling ring have agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes for their roles in an illegal sports betting operation.https://t.co/ieWukARg4u
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) April 1, 2022
When will sports betting come to California?
The question everyone continuously asks themselves is when will sports betting come to California? Everything is up in the air, but it’s looking like at least one sports betting initiative will be put on the ballot next November. This is of course a great sign, as it shows that things are moving in the right direction. More initiatives are expected on that ballot as well.
The more there are, the higher the chances of one getting voted in by the local citizens. Right now, it feels like the vast majority of people in California would be all for sports betting to be given the okay, but there’s also people on the other side of the fence here. There’s a major concern for people getting addicted to gambling, which we’ve seen happen in other states.
However, there’s also some plans in place to use some of the revenue from sports betting the states brings in to tackle some of the biggest issues in California. This of course includes homelessness and people that are going through mental health diseases. The two are hand in hand, but additional money and resources being used to help these folks out would be massive for California.
Come next fall, everyone will have a much better idea of what could end up happening when it comes to sports betting. Again, the longer illegal betting is allowed, the more sports rings like the one operated by the five men mentioned above will continue to make money. California as a whole wants to see this come to a stop as soon as possible. Getting betting made legal will surely help with that.
