An more dimension has emerged in the Jontay Porter sports betting survey.
When it was found that Porter was betting on NBA games, including ones involving his Toronto Raptors, the NBA banned him for life in April.
It was discovered that the former NBA player had been giving bookmakers insider information about his intentions to leave Raptors games with fictitious problems, allowing the bettors to win proposition bets on his stat lines for such games.
Bettors would place a stake that Porter would have less stats for a particular game than normal. In order to guarantee a payout for the bettors, Porter would then fabricate a sickness and exit a game early.
Many have questioned why Porter would jeopardize his professional playing status in order to generate a fast profit. It seems that we now know why: he was clearing a debt related to gaming.
According to a Tuesday story by Kyle Schnitzer of the New York Post, Porter had racked up significant gambling debt at the start of the season and had been urged to underperform in a few games to pay it off.
According to The Post, a 38-year-old man known as Long Phi Pham (also known as “Bruce”) was detained when attempting to board a one-way flight from JFK International Airport in New York to Australia.
A day after the authorities tried to question Pham, The Post said, he was attempting to flee the nation. Pham allegedly had two cashier checks totaling $80,000, multiple betting slips, and $12,000 in cash when he was taken into custody.
Pham may spend up to 20 years in prison for counts of wire fraud. Before receiving a ban, Porter, 24, participated in 37 games throughout his NBA career.