Tucupita Marcano gets lifetime MLB ban for betting on baseball - ESPN

Major League Baseball has permanently banned Tucupita Marcano after determining that the infielder placed hundreds of bets on baseball, including wagers on games involving the Pittsburgh Pirates when he was with the team last season.

MLB said Tuesday that Marcano placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 in October 2022 and from last July through November with a legal sportsbook. He became the first active player in a century banned for life because of gambling.

Marcano appears to be the first active major leaguer banned under the sport's gambling provision since New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O'Connell in 1924. Pete Rose, baseball's active career hits leader, famously agreed to a lifetime ban in 1989 after an investigation concluded he bet on Cincinnati Reds games while managing the team.

«The strict enforcement of Major League Baseball's rules and policies governing gambling conduct is a critical component of upholding our most important priority: protecting the integrity of our games for the fans,» commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. «The longstanding prohibition against betting on Major League Baseball games by those in the sport has been a bedrock principle for over a century. We have been clear that the privilege of playing in baseball comes with a responsibility to refrain from engaging in certain types of behavior that are legal for other people.»

Marcano, currently a member of the San Diego Padres, was found to have placed 231 MLB-related bets, including 25 that MLB says included wagers on Pirates games while he was on the team's major league roster. However, he did not appear in any of those games because he was on the injured list following a season-ending knee injury. He was receiving