Gambling charges and ban from NBA
On March 25, 2024, ESPN reported that the NBA had opened an investigation of Porter for "multiple instances of betting irregularities over the past several months". On April 11, the Colorado Division of Gaming issued an instruction to state sportsbook operators to immediately report any potential wagering on "NBA affiliated games" by accounts connected to Porter. The investigation centered on irregularities found related to proposition bets around Porter's individual statistics.
It subsequently emerged that Porter was finding it difficult to service significant gambling debts. His right knee had never fully recovered from the severe injury he'd suffered at Missouri, making it harder for him to catch on in the NBA. Soon after arriving in Toronto, he used a friend's phone to secretly bet on NBA games; while he netted modest profits, they were still not enough to pay off his earlier debts. By the winter of 2024, he had amassed a particularly large debt to Brooklyn gambler Ammar Awawdeh; according to a post-mortem by Toronto Life, the debt was large enough that Awawdeh could potentially "end (Porter's) career in an instant." Using this leverage, Awadeh pressed Porter into performing a number of "specials" for Awawdeh and four of his friends–Long Phi "Bruce" Pham, Shane Hennen, Timothy McCormack, and Mahmoud Mollah. Porter took part in a scheme to help Awawdeh and his friends win proposition bets tied to Porter's performance. Awawdeh and his co-conspirators would bet that Porter would fall short of certain benchmarks. Porter then feigned injury to leave games early, ensuring the bets would hit.
The scheme unraveled during the Raptors' March 20 game against the Sacramento Kings, a game on which Porter bet that his own team would lose. According to the NBA, Porter told Awawdeh, Pham, and Mollah in a secret Telegram channel that he intended to feign illness again. He had laid the groundwork for doing so the previous week by complaining about food poisoning. While at the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City with Awawdeh, McCormack, and Pham, Mollah then used his account with DraftKings' sportsbook at the casino to wager $80,000 on a parlay bet that Porter would not meet certain player statistics – an under bet – which would have won $1.1 million. Porter, Awawdeh, Pham, and Mollah would have each received 24 percent of the proceeds had the bet hit, while McCormack would have gotten the rest. Porter's behavior drew notice once he removed himself from the game due to illness. The size of the bet was highly irregular given Porter's relatively low stature. The low odds also raised suspicion. After an independent monitor flagged the bet, DraftKings refused to pay out and froze Mollah's account. Internal investigations by FanDuel and DraftKings revealed other suspicious bets Mollah placed on Porter's performance, including a January 26 game against the Los Angeles Clippers in which Porter feigned an eye injury. It was the largest payout of the night, as was the March 20 game. DraftKings and FanDuel reported their findings to the NBA and the International Betting Integrity Association. The FBI was called in as well. In its investigation, the NBA also found that between January and March 2024, Porter had placed 13 bets on NBA games using another person's account. Some of the wagers included parlay bets involving the Raptors losing. His wagers totaled $54,000 over that period, netting over $22,000 in winnings. The NBA accused him of "disclosing confidential information to sports bettors, limiting his own participation in one or more games for betting purposes, and betting on NBA games".
On April 17, Porter was banned for life from further play or any other involvement in the NBA and its associated leagues. He became the first active player to be banned for gambling since Jack Molinas in 1954, as well as the first active player to be permanently banned from the NBA without any means to return since Richard Dumas in 1996. On June 4, 2024, Pham was arrested at JFK International Airport while attempting to flee the country. McCormack, Mollad, and Awawdeh were subsequently taken into custody as well. On July 3, Porter was also charged with a federal felony in relation to the case involving those four men. On July 3, 2024, court papers were made public revealing Porter's imminent criminal charges in the United States at the federal level for his role in the sports betting scandal. Porter is also undergoing a criminal investigation in Canada. In the federal case on July 10, Porter would plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which could impose a range of no time in prison to up to 20 years in prison for what he did, but faces a most likely time of 41 to 51 months in prison. One of the conditions related to his guilty plea was to forfeit his passport for a pre-sentence release, which forbade him to play overseas for the Promitheas Patras B.C. of the Greek Basketball League. The NBA would also implement what is called the "Jontay Porter Rule" following his ban, which forbade sportsbooks from including unders on player props who are on either two-way contracts or 10-day contracts.
