The NHL gambling scandal
 

This is gigantically huge.

In case you haven't heard, there was a several month investigation of an illegal gambling ring with mob ties. One of the major players is a Phoenix Coyotes assistant coach named Rick Tocchet. Apparently, he facilitated around 1.7 million in bets over a period of 40 days recently.

Well, if goes much deeper. Wayne Gretzky is the head coach of the Coyotes. His wife placed about 500K of those bets. Gretzky, at a press conference, said that he didn't track everything his wife did.

It has come out this morning, however, that there are wire taps with Gretzky discussing the bets with Tocchet (insert Bush/NSA jokes here).

This isn't some thug enforcer. This is the Great One. Most likely the greatest hockey player ever. His number is retired across the entire league.

If Pete Rose was banned from baseball, as he should have been, does the NHL start clearing out the Gretzky wing of the NHL hall of fame? Do all the Gretzky jerseys come down from the rafters of wherever they are? Is 99 no longer retired?

This is amazing. How can you have hockey if The Great One becomes personna non grata? I'm not saying he would not deserve to be banned, but Gretzky IS hockey.

Wow.

Pete Rose was banned from baseball for betting on baseball. According to everything I've heard, none of this betting was on hockey. So while it was illegal, it did not jeopardize the integrity of the sport by creating a conflict of interest the way betting on your own sport does. So no, I don't think this will have any implications for Gretzky's status in hockey history.

Local news here in Phoenix has said it is "unclear" if it involved betting on hockey. I agree it is not as damaging if hockey was not bet on, but the poster child of the NHL involved with an illegal high stakes sports book with mob ties is still major, and I beleive would involve his removal as coach of the Coyotes, and would could also have other penalties.

Then again, Gretzky is likable, unlike Rose, so from a marketing standpoint they may not take harsh action.

Eh, a ridiculously wealthy person involved in illegal gambling? Hardly eath-shattering news in my book. As long as it wasn't on hockey, this will eventually be a non story.

Eh, Michael Jordan engaged in illegal gambling all the time and it was pretty openly known. Rich athletes (generally) love to gamble and will do so at just about every opportunity. If the coach was running a bookmaking operation then I suppose that needs to be punished but I don't really care about the people placing bets (and since gambling should be fully legal I actually don't really care about the bookmaking, either).

As long as they weren't betting on NHL games.

Also, I like to think that baseball banned Pete Rose simply because he is an asshole and the gambling is a convenient excuse. Believing that gives me a warm fuzzy.

Well if Pete Rose was banned from baseball for betting on baseball I suppose the Great One should be banned from baseball if he bet on baseball;)

My thoughts:

I really don't care about illegal gambling but I think it's pretty weak of Gretzky to throw his wife under the bus. I'm sick of public figures looking into the camera and sincerely lying their asses off.


That said, I hope - against all logic - that he's telling the truth about not knowing that his wife bet 500 large in a month and a half. The thought of Wayne's wife placing bets with his assistant coach behind his back is just sooooo delicious to me.


Haven't these people heard of online sportsbooks? Who uses a bookie these days?

This is why I think something/things is/are definitely not known yet. Exactly Sac. Why use a bookie? Especially when you are highly placed in the world of sports?

The can think of no reason.

15 or so years ago their was a point shaving scandal at ASU (mens basketball). Couple players who liked to bet on sports got behind on some money owed to a campus bookie. "No problem, " said the bookie. "You can help us out. We're not talking about losing the game. We're talking about making sure you don't win by more than the spread." A few missed layups and free throws later, a scandal is born.

I'm sure Gretzky and Tocchet are smarter than that (maybe not Gretzky's wife....she's a bit on the blonde side, if you know what I mean). But.....when you are involved in a ring with freakin' mob ties and you are in a position of power in the sports world, I have to think there's more than a few bets being placed.

I remember that. Idiots were busted by suspicious sportsbooks. It seems that your average ASU game might get like $500 worth of action but these genuises would sprinkle a few $10,000 bets around the various sportsbooks right before tip-off. Who wouldn't be suspicious of a sudden spike in action?

Huh?

To clarify, it was the bookie who went around spiking the action in the casinos right before tip-off, not the point shaving basketball players.