Disgraced Ex-Raptors player had sizeable gambling debt at time of NBA ban
He may be gone from the NBA, but former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter is still making headlines this week.
Porter, who received a lifetime ban from the NBA earlier this season due to multiple gambling-related offences, was reportedly trying to get off of a noticeable gambling debt during his time in the league.
“Federal prosecutors allege that Porter had racked up large gambling debts in the beginning of the year to co-conspirators, and was encouraged to clear those debts by throwing games in order for certain bets to hit,” reads a report from Kyle Schnitzer in the New York Post that was published Tuesday.
Schnitzer’s report was centred around the arrest of Brooklyn resident Long Phi Pham, who allegedly teamed up with the former Raptors forward to place bets on games they knew he would throw, according to federal prosecutors. Pham was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport while trying to board a flight to Australia.
“From January through March 2024, while travelling with the Raptors or Raptors 905, the Raptors’ NBA G League affiliate, Porter placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate’s online betting account,” the NBA’s release read.
“These bets ranged in size from $15 to $22,000, for a total of $54,094. The total payout from these bets was $76,059, resulting in net winnings of $21,965. None of the bets involved any game in which Porter played. Three of the bets were multi-game parlay bets that included one Raptors game, in which Porter bet that the Raptors would lose. All three bets lost.”
Porter played 26 games for Toronto this past season before the ban.
According to a report published on Action Network the day before his ban was handed down, Porter held a VIP account with FanDuel in Colorado, placing “millions” in sports wagers from 2021 through 2023.
The news comes on the heels of San Diego Padres player Tucupita Marcano being banned for life from Major League Baseball for his own series of bets on the sport.
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