"You know horses are smarter than people," observed Will Rogers. "You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people." If there were such a pioneering quadrupedal speculator, however, she or he would have had precious few people to bet on this year. Since March, most sports around the world have been on ice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Into this vacuum of viable vices swaggers a Slavic-speaking sports source: table tennis from the Eastern Bloc has been a lifeline for the gambling industry. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other former Soviet Socialist Republics have become overnight sensations in the gambling world, with hundreds of thousands of dollars pouring in daily to bet on the suspiciously staged sports spectacles. The matches are not only unsanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) or European Table Tennis Union (ETTU), but are in violation of the current rules of both governing bodies. In May, 365 players were suspended by the Ukrainian Tennis Table Federation for violating pandemic protocols. Around the same time, ESPN questioned the legitimacy of the matches, which are staged around the clock with unknown players in makeshift rooms with tarps for walls. While no illegal activity was uncovered at the time, the state of Indiana moved to suspend unregulated table tennis from its sports books, and Colorado has since followed suit. Now, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has drawn the line on Ukranian table tennis. Ukraine is home to such novel "leagues" as the Setka Cup, TT Cup, WIN Cup, and others implicated in an alleged match fixing scheme. According to a statement issued by the Sports Wagering Integrity Monitoring Association, "While there is not yet any evidence that any match fixing occurred in New Jersey, due the nature of the alert, the Division is suspending approval for wagering on all table tennis events in the Ukraine." The association went on to name six players accused of match fixing. Now, bettors in the Garden State, whether they be of the two-legged or four-legged persuasion, will no longer be able to risk their hard-earned money on matches involving any of the following players: Karen Dzhanibekyan, Anastasia Efimova, Ivan Gaysin, Eduard Panichev, Liliia Zaitseva and Gleb Zotov. Oh Gleb, where did we go wrong?

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