The Fixed Championship

Several professional baseball players and others were charged with a plot with gamblers to lose championship games on purpose. Prosecutors say the players took bribes and did not play with their best skill. The charges say this was a scheme to cheat bettors and the public out of money by false pretences, and to damage the team owner's business. The disputed point is whether losing on purpose, as charged, was a crime: the state must prove they meant to cheat people.