Axios PM

March 27, 2024
Good afternoon. Today's newsletter, edited by Sam Baker, is 505 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.
🚨 Breaking: Plans to move the Washington Wizards and Capitals to a new arena in Northern Virginia are dead, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil reports.
1 big thing: Sports betting's dark side
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
Gambling's sudden takeover of American sports is already racking up predictable consequences, Axios' Sam Baker writes.
- 🏀 The NBA is reportedly investigating Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter in connection with unusual betting activity.
- Several people wagered huge sums on bets that Porter would put up below-average numbers of points and rebounds in recent games, ESPN reported. He did, and on both occasions, those bets were the biggest moneymakers of the day in online sportsbooks.
🎓 The NCAA is now trying to ban bets on individual player's statistics.
⚾️ And all of this comes amid the scandal surrounding baseball star Shohei Ohtani, whose longtime translator allegedly stole $4.5 million from him to cover gambling losses.
- The specifics in Ohtani's case are different — his translator was betting illegally, not with the online sportsbooks that have become so popular.
But the confluence has been enough to animate Democratic members of Congress who want to more tightly regulate sports betting, The Wall Street Journal reports.
🎰 The bottom line: Online sports betting is wildly popular, which is why leagues like the NBA have done an about-face to embrace it. But it's all happened remarkably quickly — so teams, players and league officials will have to grapple with its effects on sports in real time.
2. 🌓 Eclipse fuels busy travel week

Spring break and the solar eclipse will likely combine to make next week the busiest travel week of the season, the FAA predicts.
- ✈️ The FAA says it's anticipating a peak of 50,670 flights on Thursday, April 4, followed by 48,904 flights the next day.
- 🌚 Travelers are heading to familiar spring break destinations, but also to spots within the April 8 eclipse's "path of totality," where cities will be entirely in shadow.
3. Catch me up

- 🏗️ The Port of Baltimore could reopen in about six weeks (in May), a DHL executive tells Bloomberg. That's sooner than some feared. In the meantime, the bridge collapse could leave 2,400 longshoremen without work. Keep reading.
- ⚖️ Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have reached a settlement in the two-year legal battle over a special district that includes Disney World. Go deeper.
- 💸 Somebody on the Jersey Shore won a $1.1 billion Mega Millions jackpot, breaking a winless streak that stretched back to December. Powerball is also on a long winless streak, with the jackpot now topping $865 million.
4. 🌭 Hot (dog) job

📏 Attention wiener enthusiasts: Do you have what it takes to get paid to measure 30 wieners (girth and length) across the country?
- BetUS is hiring a Wiener Connoisseur to travel to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums in the country to find the biggest MLB wiener in all the land, Axios Richmond co-author Karri Peifer reports.
- The top wiener judge gets $2,500, a $500 MLB gift shop gift card, and a year subscription to MLB.TV.
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