What started as a side hustle to help Jontay Porter earn some extra money devolved into a full-blown gambling addiction, leading the former Toronto Raptor being banned for life from the NBA and facing years in prison.
In a shocking interview with The New Yorker, Porter detailed how his downward spiral began and the massive amount of money he wagered on seemingly trivial sports online.
After getting a taste for risk-taking with his money through trading stocks and Bitcoin, Porter said that he began gambling on sports in 2021, signing up for an account on FanDuel while he was still two months under the legal age to gamble.
After losing a six-figure bet on an NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, Porter became hooked on the rush and there was no turning back.
He later sold his house to help pay back a loan he had taken out — and lost on gambling — and then moved in with his brother, NBA star Michael Porter Jr.
Why was Porter betting on ping pong?
With hooks of addiction in deep, Jontay found his new favourite sport to bet on: Russian table tennis.
“A ping-pong match, it takes fifteen minutes,” Porter said.
It’s exhilarating because, in your mind, your whole life rides on how good a serve this ping-pong guy has,” Jontay said. “It drives you insane, quite literally. Eyes bloodshot. Staring at the screen.
“I think you’re addicted to the thrill of the in-between, when you don’t know if it’s going to win or lose.”
Porter said that over the course of three days, he bet and won more than a million dollars on the sport.
However, things went south and the former NBA forward was banned from FanDuel after the sportsbook was notified by PayPal that Porter was betting with overdrawn deposits.
Porter said that he has wagered at least $500 million US in his life, with more than $50 million of it having gone through FanDuel in one 18-month stretch.
That led Porter — who at the time was a member of the Raptors — to becoming involved with an associate of New York’s Gambino crime family.
When his debts came due, Porter allegedly was forced to “throw” his personal results during games to manipulate gambling outcomes.
What did Porter do to get banned?
During the 2023-24 season, Porter was accused of manipulating his performance and working with gamblers to win prop bets in two games.
An NBA investigation later found that the 6-foot-11 forward personally bet on 13 NBA games in 2024 that he didn’t play in — a violation of league rules — and won $22,000 US.
In July 2024, Porter pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud — a felony that carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. However, the former NBA role player still is awaiting sentencing and is expected to get between three and four years when the ruling comes down.
Earlier this year, Porter joined the Seattle SuperHawks, part of the newly rebooted United States Basketball League. Porter had previously been denied a chance to play overseas for the Promitheas Patras B.C. of the Greek Basketball League because he was required to forfeit his passport as a part of his plea deal.