It's institutionalized fraud, and a fundraising method for organized crime.
> WWE seems to do just fine with a completely fixed system.
Nobody is currently permitted to wager anything on those fixed WWE matches.
As with all other regulations intended to protect idiots from themselves, the industry is looking to repeal it.
Making things illegal/banned might feel good at first, but if it's barely enforceable and/or the demand for that thing remains very high all you are doing, as a state, is foregoing on a lot of taxes while not even diminishing harm often (sometimes even causing your own harm... I'm looking at you "war on drugs"... and before that the alcohol prohibition).
Financial institutions have required reporting already, watching for large transactions is already in place.
Coming up with penalties and sentences for violations would be the trickier part.
If they are good sports and just kill the clock, is that fraud? If somebody pays them to kill the clock and not cover the spread, is that fraud?
Is risk of somebody manipulating the outcome like this just part of what makes it a gamble?
Yes. It’s called point shaving and it is fraud.