The sports world was shocked following last month’s indictments against an NBA head coach and players over allegations of illegal gambling operations. But while the scope of these indictments seemed unprecedented in professional leagues, there’s a long history of sports betting scandals in the U.S.

NBA Mafia indictments
In one of the largest betting scandals in the history of sports, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups (pictured above), Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones were “among 34 people indicted in connection with two separate federal gambling investigations,” said CNN. The arrests came following a multiyear investigation that spanned 11 states and involved numerous Mafia members, including members of the “notorious Bonanno, Genovese, Gambino and Lucchese crime families.”

Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter
Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani is considered one of the greatest players in modern baseball, but his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was fired by the team last year after an investigation “revealed he sent millions in wire transfers from Ohtani's account to an illegal bookmaker,” said ESPN. Mizuhara eventually “pleaded guilty to bank fraud and filing a false tax return,” admitting to filing nearly 19,000 illegal bets that involved stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani. He’s currently serving a 57-month prison sentence.

Chicago Black Sox
There’s perhaps no better encapsulation of a sports scandal than this one. Given that this incident involving the 1919 Chicago White Sox occurred over a century ago, the exact details are unclear. But “one central and indisputable truth endures: Talented members of that White Sox club conspired with professional gamblers to rig the outcome of the 1919 World Series,” said the Society for American Baseball Research.

Eight players on the team, who were nicknamed the Black Sox by the media, were originally implicated in the scandal, most notably baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. In court, prosecutors claimed that each player was “promised up to $20,000 to throw games and possibly the entire series,” said the Chicago History Museum.

AI may be making workers complacent. As more professions begin to rely on artificial intelligence, certain skills will be lost. This phenomenon, known as deskilling, is emerging in many industries and could lead to problems down the road.

What’s deskilling?
The danger of AI has moved from “apocalypse to atrophy,” said The Atlantic. As the technology advances, people are losing the ability to perform certain tasks without its assistance. For example, doctors were found to be less adept at finding precancerous growths during colonoscopies after just three months of using an AI tool designed to spot them, according to a study published in the Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The study sparked worry about AI use in the medical sphere, with many concerned that “just three months of using an AI tool could erode the skills of the experienced physicians,” said The New York Times.

Deskilling has been observed across an array of fields. Therapists may be “allowing themselves to become passive in the act of therapy,” limiting their “reflexive diagnostic thinking,” said Forbes. In education, students are using AI to write essays or do research. But the “term paper, for all its tedium, teaches a discipline that’s hard to reproduce: building an argument step by step, weighing evidence, organizing material, honing a voice,” said The Atlantic.

How bad is it?
Deskilling is not strictly a bad thing. “Every advance has cost something,” said The Atlantic. “Literacy dulled feats of memory but created new powers of analysis. Calculators did a number on mental arithmetic; they also enabled more people to ‘do the math.’” The Lancet study only analyzed one skill of a group of physicians and did not “evaluate individual doctors to determine whether they lost skills over time,” said Physicians Weekly. It was also an observational study, meaning AI cannot be pinpointed as a cause for the lower accuracy in precancerous growth detection. 

Another study found that incorporating AI raised cancer detection rates by approximately 20%. The AI usage was “plainly beneficial, regardless of whether individual clinicians became fractionally less sharp," said The Atlantic.

Hellen Obiri of Kenya celebrates winning first place in the women’s elite division of the New York City Marathon. Approximately 55,000 people raced through the city’s five boroughs yesterday. Obiri, who also won the race in 2023, broke the women’s record with her finishing time. 
Angelina Katsanis / AP 

A trip to the mountains is a delight all year. But for maximum comfort and relaxation, the hilltops call loudest during autumn and winter. Watch the leaves change, the snow fall and the nights elongate from the leisureliness of these peak-season hotels.

Cloudland, McLemore Resort, Rising Fawn, Georgia
You cross your fingers and hope for sunny skies during most vacations. That’s not how it goes at Cloudland. The resort is at the top of Lookout Mountain, and when the clouds roll in, you experience the “spectacular” view from above, said Atlanta Magazine. It’s just as lovely on clear days, when you can hike along cliffside trails, hang out by the infinity-edge pool or enjoy a round of golf.

Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa, Whitefield, New Hampshire
This resort tucked in the “majestic” White Mountains is a “veritable wellness haven,” with an “expansive” spa and indoor and outdoor pools, said Condé Nast Traveler. Covering 1,700 acres, the property is “perfect” for guests seeking time outside, and in the fall, the foliage is “nothing short of spectacular.” 

Sundance Mountain Resort, Utah
Situated at the base of Mount Timpanogos, Sundance Mountain Resort (pictured above) “feels like a true escape from the every day,” said Forbes Travel Guide. It’s easy to get lost in the activities here, like jewelry- and pottery-making in the Art Studio & Gallery and lounging in the pools at The Springs. Skiing and snowboarding in winter are “top-notch.”