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AMATEUR SPORTS GAMBLING THREATENS THE
INTEGRITY OF THE GAME
By Kevin Quinn
A new bill, called the Student Athlete Protection Act, is making its way through congress with strong backing from the NCAA.
Its intention is, “to prohibit high school and college sports gambling in all states, including states where such gambling was permitted prior to 1991.”
By prohibiting this form of gambling, the bill hopes to cut down on the staggering costs that gambling repercussions inflict on society.
According to research conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, the annual average costs on society associated with job loss, unemployment, welfare benefits, and poor health for chronic gamblers is approximately $1,200 per addicted gambler each year. In addition, the average lifetime expenses per pathological gambler for troubles such as bankruptcy, imprisonment, and divorce fees is somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,500 per gambler. This translates to a total annual cost of $5 billion per year.
For anti-gambling supporters, the bill is the most promising measure that has been taken against sports gambling in over a decade. Furthermore, on Sept. 13, the bill won approval in the Government’s House Judiciary Committee by a convincing vote of nineteen to nine. The bill’s focus is on the state of Nevada, which is the only remaining U.S. state to have legalized betting on amateur sports.
Although some members of the senate feel that it is unrealistic to think that the bill will pass this year, many are encouraged by its support thus far. Much of this support comes from Arizona Sen. John McCain who joined the cause last January. In addition, prominent college coaches, such as University of North Carolina retired basketball coach, Dean Smith and South Carolina head football coach, Lou Holtz, have joined the cause as well.
“This is a chance for Congress to do something good for a cause many Americans really love and appreciate, and that’s college sports,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Opponents of the measure are now concentrating their efforts to keep the bill from reaching the floor of congress. Their primary argument points to research showing that approximately 98 percent of gambling on college sports occurs outside of the legal casinos of Nevada.
As Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, contends, the senate is simply searching for an easy answer to a very complex problem.
“It is a cosmetic response to serious campus gambling problems,” said Fahrenkopf.
On the contrary, supporters believe that if Congress passes the bill, the business of gambling on amateur athletics will suffer immensely.
By allowing legal sports gambling in Nevada, people outside of the state get the idea that if its allowed in some places then it can’t be all that bad. They are wrong. Gambling on college athletes threatens the integrity of amateur athletics.
If an athlete is not getting paid to play the game, others should not make money betting on him.
As Senator John McCain said, “Our young athletes deserve legal protection from the seedy influences of gambling.”
Gambling has been linked to countless scandals in college sports. In the past few years, point shaving scandals to affected the spread on college basketball games at Northwestern University and Arizona State, among others.
College athletic teams in Nevada have been subject to so many gambling controversies that betting on them is no longer legal.
Scandals reached their highpoint in the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’ national championship year of 1990, and again when they reached the Final Four in 1991. That year, numerous allegations of players associating with known gamblers forced UNLV’s coach of 19 years, Jerry Tarkanian, to resign after the 1991-92 season.
These are just the proven cases. In all likelihood, a college sports scandal could be taking place right now.A recent report titled, “NCAA Division I Officials: Gambling with the Integrity of College Sports?” which was conducted by the University of Michigan Athletic Department Compliance Office, collected data from 640 Division I football and basketball officials. The other 56% of the NCAA's Division I officials declined response to the survey.
However, the survey revealed some startling statistics. Over 84 percent of the officials surveyed, said that they have gambled since becoming a college official, and half of that number have gambled on sports. In addition, two percent said that they knew of other officials that had not called a game fairly because of gambling reasons and at least 12 of the officials surveyed, said that they themselves had been propositioned to fix games.
The Student Athlete Protection Act will try to eliminate what supporters feel is one of the largest factors in gambling scandals: the publication of point spreads, also known as the game’s “odds”. Currently, almost all of the nation's newspapers print the Las Vegas betting line on college games. This contributes greatly to the popularity of sports betting and makes it easy for an inexperienced gambler to make a wager.
The passing of the new bill would encourage newspapers to follow the example set by the Washington Post, which, by holding itself to the highest of ethical standards, voluntarily rejects the point spreads for college games from being printed.
Lou Holtz, who coached Notre Dame to a national championship in 1988, said that he has heard his teams both cheered and booed for winning.
“The difference was the point spread,” he said.