Seminar Sheds Light on College Sports Betting

Seminar Sheds Light on College Sports Betting
By Nick West
of The News-Sentinel
Dozens of IPFW and statewide university officials from athletic departments, student affairs offices, counseling centers and other departments gathered at the Holiday Inn across from Memorial Coliseum last month to learn about the issues surrounding gambling and college students.

The morning session specifically focused on gambling and college athletics - student-athletes who break NCAA rules by wagering and the people who wager on those student-athletes.

University of Alabama Associate Athletic Director Chris King and NCAA Director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities Rachel Newman-Baker were the keynote speakers for the session, which was titled, “Point Spreads and Point Guards: Gambling and College Athletics.”

Their discussion was prefaced with the fact that NCAA created prohibitive rules for student-athletes to not engage in sports wagering of any institutional practice or competition - intercollegiate, amateur or professional - in an NCAA-sanctioned sport.

“Student-athletes often don't realize there's an issue with (gambling),” said King, who spent six years as a compliance officer in Alabama's athletic department and currently heads a campus advisory committee called Gambling Action Team.

King discussed the various forms of gambling available to student-athletes such as Internet Web sites, fraternities, house bookies, lotteries, racetracks and casinos. Even small pools with friends on the NCAA men's basketball tournament or Super Bowl, or fantasy sports league are illegal if money is involved.

King cited a study that said of the $400 million online bets for the 2004 Super Bowl, only $81 million were legal.

A 2003 NCAA study found that 69 percent of male and 47 percent of female NCAA student-athletes reported participating in any gambling behavior. Thirty-five percent of males and 10 percent of females wagered on sporting events, which is in direct violation of NCAA bylaws. Reasons for gambling range from student-athletes' general competitive nature to paying off debt.

Penalties can be removal from team, loss of scholarship, expulsion from college, banishment from professional sports, turned down for jobs or even prison.

Sports gambling is legal in only three states - Nevada, Delaware and small forms in Montana.

King's raised the issue that while many colleges make drug and alcohol education and assistance available, they tend to ignore gambling. Also, wagering on sports can sometimes involve organized crime.

“They don't even realize who they're betting with,” he said.

Newman-Baker's job is to educate student-athletes and university officials who have responsibilities within or over the athletics department, because it is also illegal for them to wager on sports.

“Our study tells us education really does work,” she said.

NCAA initiatives include communication with state high school athletic associations, education through Web sites like dontbetonit.org, public speaking and presentations, and encouraging coaches and team captains to take the lead.

IPFW hosted the presentation as part of a three-year grant from the state to inform administrators about gambling on college campuses and its effects.


Seminar Sheds Light on College Sports Betting