A looming gambling scandal in the NHL?

Less than a month ago the basketball world was rocked by a gambling scandal that involved some high profile NBA players, coaches and former players.

Today, NHL insider Pierre LeBrun reports that NHL Security, which I didn't even know was an entity that existed at all, is cracking down on illegal gambling and has issued some strict warnings to players, coaches and management teams.

"Jared Maples, the Chief Security Officer for the NHL, he addressed GM's about the 'do's and don'ts' and how to be careful with injury information and what the rules are. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told me afterwards that we've just emphasized what we've been emphasizing regularly, but clearly it was timely for everyone in that room to be reminded about being careful with all that."

My opinion? It's only a matter of time until we see a betting scandal in the NHL. Once the league jumped into bed with legal sports gambling, this was always the likely outcome. The league can draw up all the rules they want and police things as tight as they want, but the fact of the matter is that people will always exploit things in any way they can. Sadly, I think it's only a matter of time until we see a gambling scandal in the NHL.