According to an internal investigation ran by the NBA's main authorities revealed that approximately 28 to 30 referees out of 50 have violated the association rules in matters related to gambling.
Among these referees violations we can mention; buying lottery tickets, betting throughout sport books, golf courses and horse racing. NBA's Commissioner David Stern explained that there will be changes regarding rules and policies for the referees; after Tim Donaghy was found guilty on betting and advice professional gamblers to win. Stern ordered a review over the entire association's legal program; meantime Donaghy will be sentenced next January, though no other referees will be punished for their actions as these were minor violations of the rules and had not "cross the line".
Stern admitted many of the rules were not realistic, they are outdated and mentioned some examples such as: betting on different leagues like the NFL and MLB fact that requires investigation as well.
Right now NBA's authorities are working on a legislation improvement and might aloud referees to play casino during the off season. Among some of the changes which will be soon implemented there are: a complete check up of the referees background, the announcement of the referees' assignments in the morning not until the game time as it was done previously , the referees' mistakes will be published to guarantee transparency and the referees will be encouraged to be more accessible to players and coaches. The league will have statistic control over the referees performance in regards to their training and additional aspects that hopefully will make the league more fair.
