In sports gambling, when a superior opponent is clearly favored to defeat a weaker opponent, bettors often add or subtract a "point spread" to equalize a bet. For example, if Team A is favored to beat Team B by 7 points, a bettor can take "Team B Plus Seven" or "Team B Minus Seven."
"Point shaving" occurs when a crooked gamble pays a player to deliberately slack off in order to alter the outcome of bet involving his team. For instance, if Team A is favored to win by 7 points, a player on Team A might deliberately slack off so that his team still wins, but the margin of victory changes to, say, 6 points rather than 8 points.
a. Do you consider "point shaving" to be a bribe?
b. Do you consider "point shaving" to be a form of insider trading?
c. If a player secretly gets paid to commit "point shaving," who is better off? Who is worse off?
d. Do you consider "point shaving" to be unethical?
e. Should "point shaving" be considered a crime?
f. Is "point shaving" more likely to occur in professional sports or in collegiate sports? (The Becker Rational Model of cheating night help you in answering this question.)
g. In what sports do you think that "point shaving" is most likely to occur?