Imagine the UFC today, that’s what professional wrestling was through the 1970s and ’80s. ESPN showed highlights from matches. It seems comical today, but especially in the South, many people thought it was real.
As sports gambling increases in popularity, I’m having the same suspicions about professional sports I had about professional wrestling as a child. Recently federal investigators made multiple arrests regarding NBA players and coaches fixing games for prop bets.
There is an ongoing investigation into whether a recent Ultimate Fighting Championship match was fixed involving Isaac Dulgarian.
As reported by numerous media outlets, UFC CEO Dana White immediately released Dulgarian following the accusation. White did it for the same reason Julius Caesar immediately divorced his wife upon accusations of her affair. Like Pompeia, the UFC must be above suspicion.
When many of these professional sports leagues cozy up to online gambling outlets, are fans wrong for being suspicious? Did Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy drop a pass or was there a prop bet on the number of passes he caught in a game?
Gambling has been intertwined with sports since the inception of athletics, but in all of this we forget about the real victims. It’s not the kids or the fans being cheated out of an honest football game.
It’s America’s degenerates, Kansas’ degenerates, and it’s about time somebody takes a wobbly stand for them. If people would quit drinking, smoking/vaping and gambling, countless state programs would be heavily impacted.
In 2025, Kansas made $25 million from online sports gambling with expectations of an increase in 2026. It’s leveraging those funds to attract the Kansas City Royals and the Chiefs to move to KCK. Would you bet on a rigged game? No, neither would gamblers.
There is too much to risk. Sports betting is great if the game is played straight. When players and coaches get involved it’s tainted. The problem is coaches and players always get involved. It’s human nature. There is always an inside man or an invisible hand.
Gambling was one of the influences behind professional wrestling becoming a staged sport. Just like professional wrestling, gambling will delegitimize professional sports. Maybe it already has. As long as it’s legal, we’ll always ask was it a mistake, a slip, or did someone get rich?
