National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2000
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Association supports proposed legislation to outlaw all intercollegiate athletics wagering
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The NCAA News
Armed with a simple purpose and an awareness of the challenge at hand, the NCAA has embarked on an effort to ban legal betting on intercollegiate sports.
Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, acting at the request of the NCAA, will sponsor federal legislation that would make it illegal to wager on intercollegiate sports contests.
The Association is undertaking this effort based on the following considerations:
The NCAA membership opposes both illegal and legal sports gambling.
Gambling on college sports threatens the integrity of the contest and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes.
On June 18, 1999, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission's Final Report recommended a ban on all legal gambling on collegiate and amateur sports contests.
Collegiate sports gambling has significant social costs.
Gambling on the performance of young people is simply inappropriate.
The proposed legislation is strongly opposed by gambling interests who claim that such legislation would do nothing to deter illegal sports gambling and would even exacerbate that problem by dismantling the monitoring systems currently used by legal gambling interests.
However, the NCAA believes that banning college sports gambling would serve several practical purposes, including:
Eliminating an avenue for those participating in point-shaving to "spread out" their money.
Eliminating any legitimate reason for periodicals to publish point spreads on college games.
Eliminating the legitimacy of sports touts and other sports handicappers.
Resensitizing young people to the illegal nature of betting on college sports.
Limiting exposure and reducing the number of people who are introduced to sports gambling.
This would not be the first federal action in this area. In 1992, President Bush signed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prohibits the expansion of state-sanctioned, authorized or licensed gambling on sports. However, that legislation grandfathered several states that already conducted, or were contemplating, some form of sports gambling within their respective jurisdictions. The proposed legislation would eliminate those exemptions as they relate to future collegiate sports gambling and would ban college sports gambling in the only state in which it is currently legal, Nevada.
The proposed legislation is supported not only by the NCAA but also by higher education associations.
"I applaud the leadership of the NCAA for its efforts to curb gambling on intercollegiate sports," said American Council on Education President Stanley O. Ikenberry. "The federal legislation they propose would be a very positive step.
"Gambling on college sports threatens the integrity of college athletics and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes. The proposed legislation will go a long way to help maintain the integrity of athletic programs and help protect student-athletes who may be lured into inappropriate behavior due to promises of monetary gain.
"More importantly, the legislation will also serve to reduce the number of young people who are introduced to -- and who eventually become involved in -- sports gambling every year. Federal action will help drive home to young people the illegal nature of gambling on intercollegiate sports. The legislation proposed by the NCAA is good for student-athletes and it is good for society at large."
David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, echoed Ikenberry's thoughts.
"The NCAA's proposed federal legislation to ban legal collegiate sports gambling deserves to be passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton," he said. "Gambling on collegiate athletics is damaging to the integrity of intercollegiate athletics, potentially corrupting of our student-athletes and encourages countless thousands of Americans to squander their hard-earned wages."
Although proponents of the status quo point to the seeming widespread acceptance of sports gambling, a Gallup survey released in June 1999 revealed public anxiety on the matter.
"Two-thirds of (teens and adults) believe betting on sports events lead to cheating or 'fixing' of games," Gallup reported, "and 57 percent of adults oppose legalized betting on sports events as a way to raise state revenues."
The survey also showed that teens are relatively likely to bet on sports events and tend to be more "positive" about their gambling outcomes. Gallup said the results were surprising since almost all legal gambling is restricted to those over 18 years of age.
Gambling points/counterpoints
Responses to common criticisms about federal legislation to ban gambling on college sports events:
"This legislation will simply drive all collegiate sports gambling underground (illegal gambling)."
One should not assume that a majority of individuals who gamble on college sports in Nevada will seek out an illegal bookie in their hometown. Further, the elimination of all legal collegiate sports gambling will inevitably result in fewer people being introduced to the activity.
"If you eliminate Nevada casinos from regulating collegiate sports gambling, the NCAA will not be able to detect future point-shaving scandals."
While it is true that Nevada casinos have helped in monitoring unusual shifts in wagering on college games, this alone does not ensure protection from point-shaving scandals. In fact, many point-shaving scandals have used Nevada sports books without being detected. A blanket prohibition on collegiate sports betting will reduce significantly the outlets available for placing wagers and, in doing so, undoubtedly will have an impact on the number of individuals gambling on the games.
"What evidence do you have that eliminating legal collegiate sports gambling will impact the publishing of point spreads and the advertising of sports tout services?"
The National Gambling Impact Study Commission report found that "legal sports wagering -- especially the publication in the media of Las Vegas and offshore-generated point spreads -- fuels a much larger amount of illegal sports wagering."
Further, common sense dictates that newspapers, television and radio stations no longer will have a legitimate purpose to publish collegiate point spreads and/or advertisements for sports touts since gambling on college games would now be illegal.
In a letter to the sponsors of the legislation, former University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, men's basketball coach Dean Smith related the following observation: "The media publication of point spreads gives the public a false sense of acceptability about college sports betting and promotes an activity that is not only harmful to college sport but largely illegal. This is a matter that I have felt deeply about for many years.
"In the early 1980s, I appeared before a panel to express my concern about the publication of point spreads on college games. Not long after that, I received a call from Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post, and he asked me why the Post should continue its practice of not publishing the betting lines on college sporting events or take advertising dollars from the sports touts organizations. After I explained the harmful effects of college sports betting on the games and the young people who play them, Bradlee agreed that their policy was the right one. Unfortunately, the Post is the only major newspaper to adopt this policy."
Isn't this a states' rights issue?
In 1991, when the PASPA legislation was reported by the House and Senate, states' rights issues were carefully examined. Most members of Congress determined that the destructive consequences of sports gambling merited a federal solution. In fact, the National Governors' Association considered a resolution offered at its annual meeting in August 1991 to oppose the legislation on federalism grounds. However, the resolution was withdrawn due to lack of support. Supporters of states' rights, such as Govs. Ashcroft of Missouri and Voinovich of Ohio, were among the many governors supporting the original legislation, along with numerous state attorneys general and state legislative leaders.
Congress and the American people view sports gambling as a federal issue. With the passage of PASPA in 1992, nearly every state is prohibited from authorizing, promoting, or licensing sports gambling in any form. In light of the potential dangers associated with collegiate sports gambling and its interstate impact, Nevada should not be permitted to be the only state that conducts college sports gambling within its borders.
"Isn't it hypocritical of the NCAA to attack sports gambling when this activity promotes and retains interest in your games?"
First, there is no evidence that reveals that existence of sports gambling creates greater interest in the games and helps boosts television ratings.
Second, even if it were true that sports gambling creates a heightened interest in college sports, the NCAA is willing to lose this fan base in return for a ban on all collegiate sports gambling. Simply put, the NCAA and its member institutions strongly believe that sports and gambling do not mix.
"What has the NCAA done to address the problems associated with gambling on college sports?"
The NCAA has adopted rules prohibiting gambling on college and professional sports for student-athletes, coaches, athletics administrators, and athletics conference and NCAA staff; the NCAA has been a leader in participating/sponsoring education-awareness programs and distributing educational materials addressing sports gambling; the NCAA is involved with the development of research on youth gambling behavior; the NCAA airs a number of sports gambling public service announcements during major network coverage of NCAA championship events; and the NCAA is currently working with the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators to increase student awareness of the problems associated with gambling and to develop model anti-gambling curricula for use by campus administrators.
"The Las Vegas Sun on January 21 reported the gaming industry as saying, 'The strategy is to throw back as much dirt at the NCAA as possible in a calculated effort to persuade Congress that the organization needs to clean up its own house before targeting Nevada's.' According to the Sun, the gaming industry 'intends to point out to reporters a host of unrelated troubles within the NCAA.' What is the NCAA's response?"
The NCAA has met with representatives of the gaming industry to try to work together on this issue. The gaming industry refused to cooperate.
Also, this about gambling on young people, most of whom are teenagers: The NCAA, and the colleges and universities that support this legislation, along with the leaders of the high-school community, higher education and the U.S. Olympic Committee, have no monetary interest in the outcome of this legislation. Our goal is to protect student-athletes and to remove the unseemly influences of sports gambling on our amateur athletes and the games they play.