The NBA gambling indictments aren’t about a few players making bad bets—they’re about the weaponization of insider information. The Department of Justice is using conspiracy and money-laundering statutes that don’t even require an overt act, meaning simply agreeing to share non-public injury data can be treated like organized crime. What’s really happening here is the collision of real-time sports data, online betting, and insider access—creating a new frontier for white-collar crime. This isn’t just a sports scandal; it’s the first major test of how federal prosecutors will police information markets in the age of legalized gambling.

In United States v. Kousisis, Defendant challenges a federal wire fraud conviction under the fraud in the inducement theory. In this case, the 3rd Circuit expanded federal fraud statutes to include a theory where there was a false statement hat induced the victim to contract. Such an extension post Ciminelli would be an expansion of statutes to cover garden variety breaches of contract.