00:00Boy, I'll tell you what, the sports gambling industry has just exploded now with the court decision years ago that
00:06allowed it.
00:06And you see it everywhere. It's at both levels right now.
00:09And I'll ask you, Tim, do you think that NBA referees today, in your opinion, not knowing if they a
00:17particular story, but do you believe NBA referees today place wagers?
00:22You know, I would hope not. And I would doubt it because I think they've seen what can happen when
00:28you do do something like that.
00:29In my case, not only do you lose your job, but you lose your freedom.
00:34In my case, I not only lost my job, my freedom, but, you know, a divorce in my family.
00:39And it was tough to, you know, go through that because that was the biggest worry, especially when you're spending
00:4415 months in a federal prison,
00:46was how you're going to support your four daughters and make sure that they're healthy and happy moving forward because
00:51they were used to a certain form of lifestyle.
00:53And you wanted them to, you know, not suffer because of your mistakes.
00:58How about this, Tim? And I think it's a great story.
01:00It's a great rehabilitation story for those out there.
01:03And I think you're a great story here for folks.
01:06But with gambling being the way it is, the temptations have to be even greater than when you were approached
01:14by people.
01:15If you could tell us a little bit, how did they approach you on how you were able to start
01:21to manipulate the game a little bit?
01:24And you would have to think, right, Tim, today, with all the money that's out there and gambling up today,
01:29there's got to be more issues out there for referees in both football, basketball, whatever sport it is,
01:36for them to be able to try to stay away from.
01:38What are some of the signs that you would think that people should stay away from?
01:43You know, I was a member of the country club, and there was a lot of guys there that I
01:46enjoyed hanging out with,
01:48going to the casinos with that were big sports gamblers.
01:51And, you know, they would just ask me at times who I thought would win a certain game.
01:55And unfortunately, I knew who was officiating from looking at the master schedule
02:00and that there are relationships that existed both positive and negative between referees and coaches,
02:05referees and players, and referees and owners, and that spilled out onto the floor.
02:09And maybe a point spread would be off by four, five, or even six points because of those relationships.
02:14And I would just pass that information along to my buddies at the country club,
02:18and they started using it and making money off of those picks.
02:22And, you know, it just spilled into a situation where then I started to cross a line.
02:26And if I was in a morning meeting and I came across information that I knew affected that line
02:32and that point spread on what the three officials would do that night,
02:35I would also pass that information along to them.
02:37And, you know, we were winning at a rate of 70% to 80% with the sports picks,
02:42and it was just like knowing the winning lottery numbers before the lottery was drawn.
02:47So, Tim, for you, it was more about insider information, more than actually in-game stuff.
02:54Did you ever find yourself in-game under pressure?
02:56To make sure that you had to have a particular call or were not?
03:00Because from what I'm understanding, you told me this before, and correct me if I'm wrong,
03:05the league office, if you're in a playoff game, will come to you and go,
03:08hey, we're being a little tight on this here down on the box.
03:12Let's be a little bit lesser down there when it comes to Shaquille O'Neal or somebody like that.
03:17And I'm just using a name.
03:18Did you feel pressure because all of a sudden now that, you know,
03:22you were looking at the points that you felt that maybe in a game that you would call a penalty
03:27or you would call a foul on somebody that maybe would help that line?
03:33You know, Dan, we won so much, there was never any pressure on me to go out there
03:36and send a star player to the bench with three, four, you know, quick fouls.
03:41And when it came to the playoff times, they would put us in a room as officials
03:45and show us plays that they wanted us to call on a given night.
03:48And those plays always went for the team that was down in the series
03:52and against the team that was up in the series.
03:54And we would walk out of the room saying they wanted a certain team to win tonight
03:58because it was 2-0 or 3-0.
04:00And we all know when these playoff series go to 3-2, 3-3, game 5, 6, and 7,
04:06you make a heck of a lot of money than you do when you have a 3-4-0 sweep.
04:11So the bottom line was it all came down to money.
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