Before the Supreme Court ruling in 2018 open the floodgates to legalize sports betting across the country, the proposition bet or prop bet, picking one statistic in a game to place a wager on that has nothing to do with the game's outcome wasn't a big factor in online sports betting.

Now it's ubiquitous, causing a huge headache for leagues and making fans question the integrity of the game.

Hello and welcome to USA Today is The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Wednesday, November 19th, 2025.

The NBA, NFL, and MLB have all faced their share of betting scandals.

That's despite the fact that the leagues actively work with the online sports books to try to root out corrupt prop betting.

But American gamblers love their prop bets, and so do the sports books,

which are bringing in even bigger profits with them over playing vanilla, which team will win,

kind of bets. What do the leagues need to do to maintain the integrity of their games?

Joining me now to dig into all things prop betting is USA Today's sports reporter Steve Gardner.

Thank you so much for taking the time to join me, Steve.

Thank you, Dana. Great to be here.

I want to start with the NFL because that's the only league that hasn't had a betting scandal in the past few weeks.

The NFL sent a memo out to all the teams last week to warn them about allowing

illegal profits. What was in that memo? Well, it was basically just telling NFL players don't

get caught the way that MLB players and NBA players have over the last few weeks. Just reiterating,

don't allow information that's not public to third

parties, people who could use it for gambling purposes. And of course, reminding them that they can't

bet themselves on anything in pro sports, casino games, anything that could possibly put a

cloud over the outcome of what's going on on the

field. And Steve, there's an update to the NBA betting scandal. I know that involves a few former

members of the LA Lakers. Can you tell us what the latest is on that front and what they're

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