Paul Zeise: Shocked by sports gambling scandals? You shouldn't be.

PITTSBURGH — The NBA gambling scandal that was announced Thursday may have been shocking to some, but at this point, the only thing shocking is that it hasn't happened a lot more.

Gambling has been a part of the fabric of sports almost since cavemen began wrestling some 15,000 years ago. And back then, they didn't have apps on their phones and computers that made it this easy to bet on sports.

I would be willing to bet (pun intended) at that those first matches, guys were betting jewelry, spear heads and fish hooks on who they thought was going to be the winner. And heck, it probably only took about three, maybe four, matches before a wrestler, deep in debt, figured out he could get out quickly by throwing the match.

Those cave dwellers also drew some pictures of guys running against each other and competing in throwing spears in what was the prequel to track and field, and I can't imagine how dirty those events were. I can picture a bookie named Stoneclaw yelling out, "I'll give 5-to-1 odds on Ugg versus Grogg in a race down to that cave entrance, over to that big tree and back to this rock." Meanwhile, Stoneclaw already knows the outcome of the race because Grogg lost a parlay on wrestlers and knows he has to lose so Stoneclaw can get his money back!

I did some research for this story on the first sports betting scandal and learned it wasn't, in fact, Pete Rose or even those Boston College players with Henry Hill and his Pittsburgh connection that first crossed the line and began betting with inside information.

As an aside, I love that the Boston College scandal involved Pittsburgh guys and a mobbed up Pittsburgh connection, Paul Mazzei. That seems to be fitting considering our love in this region for numbers rackets, backdoor card games, these new legal gas station gambling boxes, the lottery, bingo and just about every other form of primitive and new technology gambling that goes on.

The funniest part of the Boston College scandal story is that Mazzei and Hill — the real ones, not the "Goodfellas" versions of them — actually meet and talk and can't agree on how much money they won fixing those games.

Nevertheless, it was a few years earlier that there was a betting scandal — OK, maybe more than a few years, according to internet research ...

"The first recorded sports betting scandal occurred in 388 BCE at the ancient Olympic Games, when a boxer named Eupolus of Thessaly was caught bribing three opponents to throw their fights. The earliest recorded instances of sports betting and match-fixing date back to antiquity, suggesting a long-standing link between athletics and gambling."

For those keeping score at home, that was 2,412 years ago. So, yeah, there has been gambling on sports going on for a long, long time.

Now let's fast forward to 2025, when every major professional sports league — and that now includes the NCAA — has partnerships with some combination of gambling sites, casinos and fantasy sports (which is gambling in a different form) apps.

You almost can't watch a game without seeing something, either in-stadium or on the screen somewhere, that includes commercials for these kinds of sites. Heck, ESPN now has its own sportsbook, and there isn't a single show they have in which they talk about games that they don't reference the betting lines.

There are whole shows on all these sports networks now dedicated to looking at the odds and handicapping games. There are now live betting odds posted in some games, which I find incredible. But it shows how the attitudes about gambling have changed.

That's why I have to laugh when there is all this outrage about athletes or coaches falling to the temptation of betting on games they can influence.

Terry Rozier is the poster child for how simple it is, as he had a bunch of money bet on "under" (points, rebounds or assists) in prop bets and then ensured they would hit by checking himself out with a mysterious injury.

In laymen's terms, he bet on himself (through others) to score less than 10 points in a given game, and then after he played the game for a little bit, he came up with an injury to ensure he didn't score more than that.

It seems brilliant, except with legalized betting apps it was easy to track. And one of the easiest red flags is that nobody in their right mind would bet on Rozier to do anything of significance.

Another form of it was Damon Jones, who got some information that LeBron James was injured and would be missing a game or two before anyone else. He leaked it to some of his betting pals, and they bet appropriately. That is something I cannot believe does not happen far more often than not, to be honest, because it is so easy.

When there is a barrage of advertising on betting, when the leagues are all making millions through their partnerships with betting, when every single thing about sports is now set up around betting ... what the heck did these commissioners think was going to happen?

This in no way excusing the behavior of these guys, and I would like to think there is integrity far more often than not in these games. But it is so easy to pull off these days that I am not sure why anyone would be surprised by any of it.

There will be more gambling scandals, more players and coaches either arrested or fined or banned, because there is so much access, it is so easy and there is so much temptation to cross that line.

And each time, the people who run these leagues will circle the wagons, act shocked and appalled ... and then sign another contract with Joe Blow's casino and sports betting app.

Gambling on sports is as old as time. The only difference is Shoeless Joe Jackson and company didn't have the ability to place their World Series bets on an app on their phone — one that is a partner of their league, and one that can be done while simply driving to the game.