非法赌博集团一直是国际体坛的一个黑影，但有一个奇怪的例外：美国。这是令人惊讶，因为美国人对体育的狂热爱好。而足球和板球运动员有往往是有卑微的出身背景的青少年。
在2009年，除了一些与体育有关的的奖券以外，内华达州的体育投注者在赌场上进行体育下注的总金额高达26亿美元。体育奖券是国家唯一发行的合法的赌注。但这样的合法博彩只是一小部分。板球和足球一样，并非所有的赌注都严格按照奥运会的标准，博彩公司开出赔率的对象也开始不仅限于比赛结果，很多赌徒根本不用关心比赛的结果，他们下注的内容可以是比赛的某一段内容，或者是比赛中发生的某些特殊事件。
美式足球赛季是美国的一个体育盛事，吸引很多人参与投注。对于该赛季的任何一场比赛，博彩公司都会开除各种各各样的赔率，包括谁会第一个触地得分，以什么样的颜色泼向乐冠军队的主教练等等。这些仅仅是最容易被外行人掌握的投注玩法。
因为运动员卑微的出身背景，许多人会认为他们会接受赌博公司的贿赂而打假球。这也是对巴基斯坦板球队丑闻的最新解释。巴基斯坦板球队的一些成员被指控故意输球。但他们以及巴基斯坦板球队的官员都对此表示否认。一位资深巴基斯坦球队官员甚至故意传出英格兰队最近故意输给对方的谣言。英格兰球队球员也愤怒地反击，表示他们没有踢假球。英格兰的球迷也愤然表示，英格兰球队不会踢假球，英格兰球队输球的原因是因为过于疲惫。
年轻球员经受不住财富的诱惑是足球腐败的主要原因，特别是经济发展比较落后的国家以及级别较低的赛事，假球泛滥程度更加严重。特别是在亚洲，球迷们在很大程度上被忽视低级别的赛事，但这却使赌徒们产生巨大的兴趣。
美国的体育投注与世界其他地方的体育投注有什么不同呢？不同之一可能是赌博公司对棒球和美式足球不太感兴趣。另一个不同之处是，美国人意识到在体育运动中赌博的腐败以及赌博的危险性。在美国，棒球比赛的腐败早已有之。亨利查德威克，是《棒球统计之父》的作家，在1870年宣布，“我们的敌人通过赌球使自己的死敌输球，我们不能被我们的敌人甩下。”。这项最臭名昭著的假球丑闻运发生在1919年，芝加哥白袜队的8名成员被指控受贿，受大量球迷青睐的白袜队输给了辛辛那提红人队。两年后，这八名选手被禁止参加任何体育赛事，尽管被陪审团宣告他们无罪。
对8名球员作出禁赛处罚的是Kenesaw Mountain Landis，此人原本是一名联邦法官，后来被职棒大联盟推举为美国职棒的首席长官，他的任务就是扫除棒球中的假赌黑现象，重塑棒球运动的风气。自从Landis上任以来，即使是棒球运动中出现的轻微的违规行为也会招来严厉的惩罚。自从Landis上任以来，即使是棒球运动中出现的轻微的违规行为也会招来严厉的惩罚。1980年代，一位破纪录的传奇打击手，Pete Rose，因为给自己的球队下注，被排除在棒球名人堂之外，甚至被MLB大联盟终身禁赛。
译文：
THE lengthening shadow cast by illegal betting syndicates over international sport has one curious exception: America. That is surprising, given that Americans are ardent betters on sport and, as with soccer and cricket, sportsmen there are often youths from lowly backgrounds.
In 2009 punters bet almost $2.6 billion on sports in Nevada’s casinos （apart from a handful of sport-related lotteries, it is the only state in which such wagers are legal）。 Such legal betting is only a small fraction of the total. As with cricket and soccer, not all bets are strictly on games’ outcomes: “exotic” wagers （variously known as prop, side or spot bets） on passages of play or specific occurrences are widely placed.
These have become a feature of betting on the Super Bowl, the climax of the American football season, which attracts more wagers than any other American sporting event. For February’s game online bookies offered odds on anything from total points, to who would score the first touchdown, to what colour Gatorade would be dumped on the winning head coach （it was orange, offered at four-to-one）。 Those are just the sort of oddities that are most easily manipulated by outsiders.
Then there are all those young men from humble backgrounds. Many say that explains the latest, long-running scandal concerning Pakistan’s cricket team, now touring England. Some of its members are accused of conniving with bookmakers, if not to lose matches then at least to instigate specific events in the game. They and their officials deny that. A senior Pakistani has now cited unsourced rumours that the English team may have deliberately lost a recent game. The players furiously reject this. English fans say wearily that their side is quite capable of collapse without any outside incentive.
Exposing young players to sudden wealth and temptation is seen as a prime cause of corruption in both cricket and soccer. It particularly afflicts minor matches between lesser sides and from poorer countries. Largely unnoticed elsewhere, these can attract huge interest from gamblers, especially in Asia. In Bahrain earlier this month, a football team purporting to be from Togo turned up for a friendly match, which they lost 3-0. But the Togolese authorities now say the fixture was nothing to do with them. Some suspect that the event （and result） were staged on behalf of people placing insider bets.
So how and why is America different? One reason may be that foreign gambling syndicates are less interested in baseball and American football （scandals are rife in tennis）。 Another is that gambling-influenced corruption in sport has made Americans aware of its dangers. It used to be endemic in baseball in particular. Henry Chadwick, a writer known as the “father of baseball statistics”， declared in 1870 that “we claim to rank among our enemies…every professional gambler who aims to make rival clubs his tools”。 The sport’s most infamous match-fixing scandal happened in 1919, when eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of taking bribes to throw the World Series. Heavily favoured, the “Black Sox” lost to the Cincinnati Reds. Two years later the eight players were banned from the sport for life, despite having been acquitted by a jury.
Turning black to white
That ban came at the hands of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge whom baseball’s owners hired as the sport’s first commissioner to restore the game’s integrity in the wake of the scandal. Since then, even minor infringements have attracted heavy sanctions. For placing bets on his own team in the 1980s, Pete Rose, a record-breaking hitter, remains outside the Hall of Fame .
