The PGA Tour drew a hard line with gambling suspensions, but not for the reason you think

Let's get this straight: The PGA Tour—the same PGA Tour that embraced Phil Mickelson as he reportedly gambled a billion dollars over various sports—decided to lay the hammer down on a minor leaguer who wagered … checks notes … $116 on … checks notes again … an exhibition?

That is the question and those are the optics in wake of two Korn Ferry Tour players, Jake Staiano and Vince India, receiving suspensions from PGA Tour competitions for violating the tour’s Integrity Program, specifically after one of those players, Staiano, explained his punishment derived from a bet made on the 12-hole TV spectacle between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in 2021. There’s a lot to unpack from the ruling, its announcement and subsequent fallout, each serving as an indictment of sorts for critics of the tour and how it is run and those who run it. While there’s certainly truth and nuance to those perspectives, this incident can ultimately be distilled to this: A message needed to be sent by the tour on its new relationship with gambling. And the recipients are not necessarily who you’d expect.

Gambling is now fused with American professional sports. More than $220 billion has been wagered since the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to allow sports betting five years ago. The American Gaming Association reported sportsbook revenue in the United States hit $7.5 billion in 2022, up 75 percent from 2021. The gaming company Flutter projects the market to reach $40 billion by 2030 in the U.S. alone with a report from Grand View Research believing the global sports betting market will reach $182 billion by that time. There’s no getting that horse back in the barn—and given the tens of millions being made by sports leagues through gambling partnerships, sponsorships and data commerce, there’s not a desire to do so.

Conversely, the leagues, sportsbooks and governments are well aware of the dangers of having that proverbial horse roam free, particularly when it comes to jeopardizing the integrity of the competitions in question. Sports are known as the greatest theater because the ending is always in doubt. Any rumbles that what we’re watching is scripted could tear down the very thing that brings us to the show in the first place. It is why point-shaving scandals have taken down entire teams and programs, while accusations of match, game and fight fixing have diluted the popularity of some sports entirely.

To ensure its game remained clean the PGA Tour established the Integrity Program Manual, a 5,000-word document to provide rules and guides for gambling. The program is wide in scope and reach. It is primarily aimed at players, yes, but also to tour volunteers, directors, employees, and affiliated persons with players, which include “caddies, family members, spouses, partners, agents, managers, instructors, trainers and other persons” who receive credentials at a player’s request. Under a section titled “Prohibited Conduct” is a list of violations of the program, the first of which is this:

Betting on Professional Golf Events. Any Covered Person, directly or indirectly, Betting on the outcome or any other aspect of any PGA Tour Event, any other professional golf competition or any elite amateur golf competition (including Olympic Golf) anywhere in the world (“Professional Golf Event”). In this Manual, ”Betting” means (A) placing any money or other thing of value on the occurrence of an uncertain outcome with the expectation of return or (B) participating in any fantasy or other game that awards a prize of value, including any free-to-play, paid or daily fantasy game, unless expressly approved by the PGA Tour.

Other violations include failing to give best efforts, contriving an outcome, facilitating unauthorized access, betting advice and providing inside information. In short, if you’re affiliated with the PGA Tour, don’t bet on golf. It is ostensibly straightforward, to the point that Staiano and India, who received a six-month ban, have little to no recourse for breaking the rule.

However, the problems began with the tour’s announcement of the suspensions on Oct. 27. In a press release, the tour did not give any detail on the Staiano or India punishments, only to say both players bet on PGA Tour competitions that neither participated in. Historically the tour has not always shared disciplinary measures (Mickelson’s initial suspension by the tour last March for attempting to recruit players to LIV only became publicly known from Mickelson’s antitrust lawsuit), but when it has the tour usually provides context for the breach in question. Just 16 days prior to the gambling suspensions, the tour announced Ben An was suspended for violating the tour’s drug policy by accidentally taking a banned substance found in Korean cough medicine. Without that detail, An’s suspension would have looked worse; without details about Staiano or India, golf fans were left to wonder how bad the offenses were.

This lack of transparency backfired when Staiano joined the "Any Given Monday" podcast to explain what happened. In a conversation with host Ryan French, Staiano said the three-month suspension came from four bets, totaling $116.20. A $25 bet was made on DeChambeau making a birdie at a tour event in 2021, the other three on the DeChambeau-Koepka made-for-TV spectacle. Staiano owned his actions but believed it wasn’t an issue because the match was an exhibition. For a second, put aside the punitive aspect, because in failing to describe what Staiano did, the tour—inadvertently or not—could have damaged his reputation for something most reasonable people would think is not that big of a deal. That Staiano is a player on the game’s fringes (he’s played in 17 total events on the KFT over the past two seasons, earning $30,910 in the six cuts he’s made) made the penalty feel all the more unnecessary, as it knocked him out of the PGA Tour’s Q School. It reinforced a notion that has only grown over the past two turbulent years in professional golf: The PGA Tour is really, really good at making a big deal over small things, but often whiffs when trying to connect with the things that matter.

There’s also the alleged hypocrisy. The tour makes tens of millions from its relationships with gambling entities, and just weeks ago opened a 13,000-square-foot sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale. Players can have endorsements with gambling companies, but fairly or not, a not-so-insignificant amount of players feel like they are being held to a different standard than the tour holds itself to when it comes to sports gambling. Staiano, in the eyes of his peers and golf fans, is nothing more than a scapegoat of virtue signaling.

This, sources close to the tour, assert is strictly not true.

Staiano’s punishment does not seem to fit the crime, but the tour’s discipline falls in line with what other leagues are doing against gambling violations. The NFL has punished a dozen players over the past two seasons for breaking its betting policies, and the NHL recently enforced a 41-game ban on Ottawa’s Shane Pinto. Gambling continues to be a cardinal sin in baseball, as hit king Pete Rose remains banished from the sport for betting on games he managed; the NBA has a similar approach after sidestepping a catastrophic betting scandal with one of its referees nearly 15 years ago. These merciless responses, several sources with knowledge of the tour’s dealings, is not coincidental.

The first reason is certain betting regulations in the United States. There are independent parties that monitor the relationship between gambling lines and competitions, and any anomalies or potential inconsistencies are investigated with vigor. Earlier this year, Sportradar Integrity Services, a global supplier of sports integrity solutions, issued a report that identified 1,212 suspicious incidents in games from 2022, a rise of 34 percent from the following year. Professional tennis has seen a widespread match-fixing scandal over the past decade, and the lower tiers of European soccer are infamous for manipulated scores and results. In the U.S. there are policies in place to ensure the games and leagues that can be bet on meet certain integrity competition standards, with those failing to meet the industry prerequisites unable to tap into the market. This is not foreign to golf: More than a dozen states do not allow betting on LIV Golf, many due to compliance issues with the integrity of the competition (although LIV Golf officials have countered the prohibition stems from the political entanglements of LIV’s Saudi backers).

Speaking of states leads to a second major reason for the punishment. There are still many states in this country where sports gambling is illegal, including three of the biggest in California (first in population), Texas (second) and Georgia (eighth). The past five years have brought financial windfalls to every sports league thanks to sports gambling, but these areas are seen as untapped revenue … and arguably needed revenue, with future media deals expected to take a hit with changing consumer habits. A part of the legalization push in these states is to prove the integrity of competition has not been impacted by sports gambling, and regular and severe policing helps get that point across.

Staiano and India aren’t the victims of draconian law; they’re potential impediments in the tour’s efforts to maximize financial gains.

Maybe that’s why, when India broke his silence on Nov. 1 with a note on social media, he did not provide an explanation or excuse—only an admission and acceptance. “It’s an absolute privilege to play this game for a living," wrote India. "To that end, I’m deeply ashamed that my behavior and poor decisions put my dream in jeopardy. I regret them everyday.”

Because if the past two years have proven anything this is a sport that genuflects to money, and if gambling transgression get in the way of that pursuit, be it $116 or a billion, the offenders are going to pay.