Scandalous or Illegal?

Jake Tapper is a Washington D.C.-based correspondent for ABC News and blogs about politics and pop culture. With hockey great Wayne Gretzky — the coach of the Phoenix Coyotes and the Canadian Olympic team — coping with allegations that his wife bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on sports games — with the help of Gretzky’s assistant coach… We asked him: What’s the difference between something scandalous and something illegal? Well, whether you’re Gary Condit, Gary Hart, or Garibaldi, quite a bit. Hockey god Wayne Gretzky’s close friend and top assistant coach Rick Tocchet, and his wife actress Janet "The Flamingo Kid" Jones, have been named by law enforcement authorities as having been involved in a gambling ring — Tocchet as helping to run the ring, Jones as having bet perhaps as much as $500,000. For Tocchet, these are serious charges involving whether or not he broke the law. After all, as a world authority on law and gambling — professor Nelson Rose of Whittier Law School — told us earlier today, "the only time law enforcement is interested in illegal gambling if it looks like organized crime is involved." Jones’s attorney has seemed to suggest her role in the investigation will be as a witness, not a defendant, and we’ll learn more about this as the investigation develops. But for her these are still questions of law. But what about The Great One, Mr. Gretzky? So far he’s been accused of nothing more than trying to keep his wife’s name out of the scandal, and retaining the besotted Tocchet as an employee. For Gretzky this is something scandalous — questions of propriety, connections to possible law-breaking, but nothing illegal. Gretzky, however, is also the one with the most to lose by a sullying of his reputation. His endorsement deals depend on his squeaky-clean nice-guy image. That hasn’t yet been tarnished. But it may be on thin ice.