Mobster Brought in to Assist in Wake of Alabama Betting Scandal

The Alabama college baseball betting scandal was featured in Gambling911.com's first installment of Top 5 Dumbest Things series.

And boy were they dumb:  Communicating inside gambling information using an encryption act while standing under a sportsbook surveillance camera, announcing to the staff that you had inside information, the list goes on.

Needless-to-say, the scandal has sent shock waves through the world of sports betting.

Not everyone has stayed quiet about it.

“That shocked me,” Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher said when he learned of the gambling investigation at Alabama that quickly expanded. “When that came out, I mean, you hadn’t heard of that for years. I can’t remember the last time that came out and there were two or three schools.”

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said: “We’re obviously very attuned now that we have a real-life example we can learn from and we’re going to make sure we do that going forward, but we’ve also done that in the past as well.”

The NCAA revealed Wednesday that some 175 gambling infractions have occurred since sports betting became regulated in the US in May of 2018.  There are currently 17 active probes.

All eyes now will be on the Crimson Tide football team.

Nick Saban said the Alabama football program’s gambling education included a talk from former mobster Michael Franzese.

- Mary Montgomery, Gambling911.com