The Newest Trend in Las Vegas: Sports Gambling
Stock Photo of Las Vegas Sportsbook
By Joshua Wilkins
"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet." - Grantland Rice
When coaches of the teams who made the regional final and semifinal rounds of the NCAA Tournament arrived at their regional sites last weekend, their first four or five hours were spent in meetings.
Those meetings included officials’ committee meetings, meetings with both schools’ sports information directors, meetings with NCAA officials, and one more. Along with their teams, they all had to attend a 30-minute presentation on prevention of illegal sports gambling.
Yes, even the womens’ bracket attracts potential temptations for student-athletes, and yes, the NCAA would obviously rather avoid the point-shaving trouble it’s had in men’s basketball at schools like Boston College, Minnesota, Tulane, and other places nationwide.
“Student-athletes often don’t realize there’s an issue with sports gambling,” Chris King, the Associate Athletic Director of the University of Alabama, said to an NCAA seminar in 2009. “
King then went on to cite NCAA statistics showing more than a third of male athletes and 10 percent of female athletes had gambled on sports in some way, not knowing that their actions were even illegal. Many of those instances may include money-wagered fantasy sports leagues and NCAA Tournament bracket pools.
With the explosion of new mediums in the sports field and the explosion of Internet gambling, along with legal sports betting in places like Las Vegas, temptation is there. The NCAA, as well as the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, and the NBA are putting their guard up to prevent more cases like Pete Rose, Tim Donaghy, Connie Hawkins, etc., but doing so is becoming more and more difficult.
A separate survey by Todayspicks.net, a gambling site, estimates that as many as four percent of these athletes bet on their own teams.
Prior to Sweet 16 games, isn’t the only time college athletes and pro athletes are reminded about the detrimental nature, not to mention the illegality, of sports gambling NCAA betting and NCAA compliance meetings are held for these athletes at least once per season, if not more often.
The NCAA is going even further, however, to prevent what its policy on gambling calls, “a serious problem that threatens the well-being of the student-athlete and the integrity of college sports.”
Added locker room visits, more officials’ background checks, more gambling-prevention educational material (like a Website www.dontbetonit.org hosted by Clark Kellogg), sports gambling curriculums for high schools, etc. have all been instituted. Many times the NCAA comes together with Vegas officials from any of its 62 sports books to work hand-in-hand to prevent any potential major scandals.
“Vegas doesn’t want a scandal to occur any more than we do,” Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA Director of Agents, Gambling, and Amateurism, said. “We may not agree on everything, but when it comes to the integrity of the game, that’s something we both care about.”
According to a recent NCAA newsletter, “Campus-level educational programs are being implemented across the country. Many of these programs use NCAA-supplied educational tools to ensure the proper anti- sports wagering messages are reaching as many student-athletes as possible. On the enforcement side, the NCAA continues to process cases with student-athletes and coaches from all divisions and across all sports. Finally, the NCAA is working with Las Vegas sports wagering officials to ensure the integrity of college sports is maintained. Despite different motivations, this arrangement has benefited both parties, especially their information sharing programs.”
"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet." - Grantland Rice
When coaches of the teams who made the regional final and semifinal rounds of the NCAA Tournament arrived at their regional sites last weekend, their first four or five hours were spent in meetings.
Those meetings included officials’ committee meetings, meetings with both schools’ sports information directors, meetings with NCAA officials, and one more. Along with their teams, they all had to attend a 30-minute presentation on prevention of illegal sports gambling.
Yes, even the womens’ bracket attracts potential temptations for student-athletes, and yes, the NCAA would obviously rather avoid the point-shaving trouble it’s had in men’s basketball at schools like Boston College, Minnesota, Tulane, and other places nationwide.
“Student-athletes often don’t realize there’s an issue with sports gambling,” Chris King, the Associate Athletic Director of the University of Alabama, said to an NCAA seminar in 2009. “
King then went on to cite NCAA statistics showing more than a third of male athletes and 10 percent of female athletes had gambled on sports in some way, not knowing that their actions were even illegal. Many of those instances may include money-wagered fantasy sports leagues and NCAA Tournament bracket pools.
With the explosion of new mediums in the sports field and the explosion of Internet gambling, along with legal sports betting in places like Las Vegas, temptation is there. The NCAA, as well as the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, and the NBA are putting their guard up to prevent more cases like Pete Rose, Tim Donaghy, Connie Hawkins, etc., but doing so is becoming more and more difficult.
A separate survey by Todayspicks.net, a gambling site, estimates that as many as four percent of these athletes bet on their own teams.
Prior to Sweet 16 games, isn’t the only time college athletes and pro athletes are reminded about the detrimental nature, not to mention the illegality, of sports gambling NCAA betting and NCAA compliance meetings are held for these athletes at least once per season, if not more often.
The NCAA is going even further, however, to prevent what its policy on gambling calls, “a serious problem that threatens the well-being of the student-athlete and the integrity of college sports.”
Added locker room visits, more officials’ background checks, more gambling-prevention educational material (like a Website www.dontbetonit.org hosted by Clark Kellogg), sports gambling curriculums for high schools, etc. have all been instituted. Many times the NCAA comes together with Vegas officials from any of its 62 sports books to work hand-in-hand to prevent any potential major scandals.
“Vegas doesn’t want a scandal to occur any more than we do,” Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA Director of Agents, Gambling, and Amateurism, said. “We may not agree on everything, but when it comes to the integrity of the game, that’s something we both care about.”
According to a recent NCAA newsletter, “Campus-level educational programs are being implemented across the country. Many of these programs use NCAA-supplied educational tools to ensure the proper anti- sports wagering messages are reaching as many student-athletes as possible. On the enforcement side, the NCAA continues to process cases with student-athletes and coaches from all divisions and across all sports. Finally, the NCAA is working with Las Vegas sports wagering officials to ensure the integrity of college sports is maintained. Despite different motivations, this arrangement has benefited both parties, especially their information sharing programs.”
