I edited my original post a little. Vegas is not a fine location for a sporting franchise because of its constitution. The man in charge is not a fine commissioner because of his nature.
If you have the wrong people at the helm, whatever can be fixed will be fixed for monetary and political gain. My thinking is if one has control over a sports league you want to keep it on the up and up. That's not Gary. That's not exactly the history of professional sports. Vegas is a gambling city filled with scoundels looking for their next score.
The NHL is sports entertainment.
Bettman's job is maximizing profit for his big business cartel bosses. He's been very, very good at that. All that follows are secondary considerations and his legacy is certainly flawed. But this sports entertainment is ultimately about the Benjamins.
Gambling is a broad societal issue. Its negative impact with sports entertainment is seeping in everywhere and different levels of competition. The huge money being thrown to advertise and normalize/mainstream sports gambling is pretty disgusting, imo.
About the issue being discussed, Merek got caught breeching confidential information and while not breaking any gaming requirements prudent that network and league reported this transgression to gambling regulators. Lose the trust and integrity of the sport and it's a slippery slope toward extinction.