Next Sport/Gaming Controversy?

[JS19]

Little bored, so I'll just throw this out there. Baseball has the steroid scandal, NBA had Tim Donaghy (and I'm sure quite a few others), I firmly believe the NFL is just as guilty as MLB when it comes to PED's, but baseball took the brunt of that one. NHL seems pretty clean, from what I know of it anyhow, which isn't much. My prediction is poker. There is just too much money, and nobody to answer to, as far as I know of, for nothing to be going on.

[Lathum]

What exactly do you think is going on?

[stevew]

Usain Bolt busted for using a previously undetectable substance?

[JS19]

What exactly do you think is going on?

I really have no specifics, pretty much just a hunch... like I said, I'm bored. I just feel that cheating goes on everywhere, with the recent discoveries of cheating in the major professional sports, it's a bit naive to think it's not going on elsewhere, especially when millions of dollars are on the line. Gambling is already considered (not by me) to be a bit sinister... just have a feeling that some time down the road some kind of major controversy will rear its ugly head.

EDIT: And like I said earlier, as far as I know, they have nobody to answer to. With so much money at hand, and being so independently operated (someone correct me if I'm wrong, for all I know their is some type of professional poker hierarchy), it just seems like it's there for the taking for someone to take advantage of the situation.

[LloydLungs]

Been waiting for a Scripps National Spelling Bee scandal for years. It's gotta happen. The thing is televised live, they're showing the word on the screen. Some overzealous spelling bee parent is going to figure out a cheat. Book it!

[Chief Rum]

Jeter signs with the Royals.

[Jughead Spock]

Some young hotshot ref will start making travelling calls in the NBA. It'll be the end of the modern sport.

[jbergey22]

Some young hotshot ref will start making travelling calls in the NBA. It'll be the end of the modern sport.

LOL:lol:

[Lathum]

I really have no specifics, pretty much just a hunch... like I said, I'm bored. I just feel that cheating goes on everywhere, with the recent discoveries of cheating in the major professional sports, it's a bit naive to think it's not going on elsewhere, especially when millions of dollars are on the line. Gambling is already considered (not by me) to be a bit sinister... just have a feeling that some time down the road some kind of major controversy will rear its ugly head.

EDIT: And like I said earlier, as far as I know, they have nobody to answer to. With so much money at hand, and being so independently operated (someone correct me if I'm wrong, for all I know their is some type of professional poker hierarchy), it just seems like it's there for the taking for someone to take advantage of the situation.

While you are correct about there being no governing body the odds of there being any kind of widespread cheating going on in high stakes poker in virtually nil.

For one you would go to jail, cheating in a casino is illegal.

For another the way tournaments are structured seating assignments are done by a random draw, so there would be no way to guarantee your partners would be at the same table.

Now when you say controversy I am assuming you mean at the highest level, Ivey, Hellmuth, Dwan, etc...but the thing you have to remember is most of the big tournaments are televised, so their hands are on TV with hole cards exposed. They would get caught pretty quickly. Even big cash games are televised.

Now if you are talking internet poker there have been a number of scams in the past, most notably an former Absolute Poker employee with a super user account who could see his opponents hole cards. He was eventually caught. All the top sites have anti collusion software built in to make sure people aren't cheating by sitting at the same cash table and sharing hole card info. It is obviously in the sites best interest to not get a reputation for allowing cheaters and they are very good at policing it.

Just some ramblings in my early morning haze. You never really specified what kind of cheating in poker you meant, but cheating of any kind is very unlikely for a number of reasons.

[sterlingice]

Some young hotshot ref will start making travelling calls in the NBA. It'll be the end of the modern sport.

Now you're talking crazy

SI

[kcchief19]

The only comparable scandal I could really see coming out of poker is in a WSOP final table-type scenario that is being recorded with hole cams and someone finds a way to tap into that info and take advantage of the situation. Otherwise I think the justice and watching-eyes of casinos are powerful enough to prevent a major "cheating" scandal.

The online possibilities fit more into the fraud category to me than cheating like using steroids in baseball. The AP situation is a good example -- there's a lot of money in online poker, and while not easy the situation is ripe with possibilities for fraud.

Not sure what I think s the next big "controversy." There's a lot of smoke right now with college basketball regarding huge sums of money going to players to steer them to certain teams, and the Cam Newton saga could be a chapter in that story.

Given everything else that has gone on and the money that is out there, seems like we should be due for another point-shaving scandal. College sports seem the easiest to manipulate because the athletes don't have money and young and gullible. It's almost like an earthquake on a fault line -- seems like we've gone too long without a point-shaving scandal, so it's inevitable we'll get one soon.

[SteveMax58]

I think somebody will reveal that pro wrestling is fake.

[Critch]

Anybody go for an Australian Rugby League/simulated sex with animals combo?

Canberra Raiders star caught simulating sex act with a dog

Joel Monaghan has joined the Australian game's extensive hall of shame after an incident that could bring a premature and humiliating end to the former Test back's career.

Monaghan, a 28-year-old whose elder brother Michael plays for Warrington, issued a public apology after a photograph of him simulating a sex act with a team-mate's dog was posted on Twitter by a Melbourne radio station.

Within hours the tweet was trending in the top 10 worldwide, embarrassing both the player and his Canberra Raiders club, who were launching a new membership package at the time. Monaghan, who has won five international caps, is expected to be sacked from the remaining two years of his contract with the Raiders, and Australia's governing body is likely to take action after the latest of dozens of off-field controversies that have dragged the game's image through the mud.

"This is an appalling incident and one that has offended everyone associated with the sport," David Gallop, the chief executive of the National Rugby League, said. "It is important that the club deals with it appropriately and that it reports to the NRL as soon as possible on the outcomes."

Don Furner, the highly respected former Canberra and Australia coach who is now the club's chief executive, said: "It is something he will live with for the rest of his life. It's a big cross to bear for doing something stupid out on the drink."

The incident occurred at Canberra's "Mad Monday", the drinking session that players traditionally share after their last game of the season.

"It was a moment of abject stupidity brought about by too much drink and a complete lack of any thought process," said Jim Banaghan, Monaghan's agent. "Joel is a genuinely good person who is simply shattered by a moment of sheer madness."

The Canberra branch of Australia's RSPCA has sent a letter to the chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory urging them to make bestiality illegal. "We are disgusted," Linke said. "It is sickening."

spoiler for a censored photo of an Australian and a dog:


http://i54.tinypic.com/zxpqu9.jpg