To get to the root of the problem of sports wagering among college student-athletes, it may be necessary to look farther back, to high school or even middle school, and examine the influences on the student that made him or her engage in such risky behavior.

At its second meeting July 12 in Indianapolis, the NCAA Sports Wagering Task Force heard from experts in the field who said many people begin betting even before they enter college, and with bookies eager to take bets from young people and the advent of Internet gambling, sports wagering is more accessible now than ever before.

The task force, chaired by University of Notre Dame President Edward S. Malloy, is charged with examining the NCAA National Study on Collegiate Sports Wagering and Associated Health Risks and submitting a final report with findings and recommendations to NCAA President Myles Brand. The group plans to have the report completed by the end of the year for discussion at the 2005 NCAA Convention.

The gambling study, released in May, was disturbing in its findings that nearly 35 percent of male student-athletes have engaged in some type of sports wagering in the past year. The report also states that about 10 percent of female student-athletes have engaged in similar behavior.

Other startling findings show that about 1.1 percent of football players reported taking money for playing poorly in a game, and 2.3 percent of football players admitted they had been asked to affect the outcome of a game because of gambling debts. Additionally, 1.4 percent of football players admitted having affected the outcome of a game because of gambling debts.

Presentations provide insight

Phillip J. Latessa, an assistant high-school principal from Austintown, Ohio, presented to the task force his findings on sports wagering on high-school football in the Mahoning Valley in Northeast Ohio. For his study, Latessa talked with high-school principals, football coaches, referees, law enforcement personnel and sports wagerers.

Latessa said he found that sports wagering does take place on high-school football games in his area, a behavior that likely occurs throughout the country. He also said he has heard stories of assistant coaches and referees betting on games and that many of those were former high-school student-athletes. He also noted that high-school students receiving more national media attention increases the problem of betting in high schools.

Latessa suggested that any educational outreach needed to target high-school student-athletes, as well as those in college.

Task force members Ken Winters, psychiatry professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and Jeff Derevensky, co-director of the McGill University International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviors, both presented information on the best way to prevent youth gambling.

"Gambling has become normalized in our society among children, adolescents, young adults and on college campuses," Derevensky said in his presentation. "In order to reach young adults at the point where primary prevention will be effective, it is important to start targeting them at a young age."

Young, college-aged students, he said, are the highest risk group for compulsive gambling.

Winters added that for educational material to be effective, it must be valid, relevant, credible and engaging. Universal programs, such as general media campaigns, will not work by themselves, he said. Also, he said, it's not only student-athletes who need education about the dangers of sports wagering, but coaches, administrators and trainers also should receive that information.

Some of the most compelling testimony before the committee came from two former bookies and compulsive gamblers who told the task force how easy it is to become hooked on gambling and how readily available it is for college students.

One of them said that college students are often targeted by bookies because they always pay and never bet enough per game to hurt the bookie. Also, they tend to bet all year long, not just during one specific sports season.

"If you can get the hook in, you can get them to bet sports," said the bookie referred to as James. "With bookies, the college students have no chance. They check your betting patterns, they manipulate the lines. They also put an enormous amount of pressure on you to pay."

James, who began betting at 11, said he wished he'd been warned in high school about the dangers of betting, before it was too late. He added, though, that while working as a bookie in high school, many of those he took bets from were teachers and coaches.

The other bookie, Mike, a former high-school student-athlete who chose gambling over college, told the task force that he lost everything to gambling, yet still continued to wager on sports. He contemplated suicide and went through treatment programs several times before kicking the habit.

He said finding the Compulsive Gambling Center, located in Maryland, saved his life. The center is run by task force member Valerie Lorenz.

Both men also suggested that the NCAA's statistics on sports wagering are just "the tip of the iceberg."

Lorenz talked to the group about the different types of gamblers -- social, professional, criminal and compulsive -- and discussed characteristics of all types. Many compulsive gamblers, she said, have other problems, such as alcoholism in their family or a history of sexual abuse and in many cases, money has been emphasized in their early family life.

Additional study findings

Denise DeHass from the NCAA research staff presented the task force with further findings from the study.

Additional data revealed that more than 3 percent of male student-athletes in all three divisions reported wagering more than $100 in any one day on any sporting event. That compares with less than 1 percent of female student-athletes in all three divisions.

Of those student-athletes who reported wagering on intercollegiate sports with a bookie or on sports cards, football pools or parlays at least once a month, the highest percentage were males in Division III (12 percent). For Division II males that figure was 8.2 percent and for Division I males it was 6.1 percent.

In the female population, that figure was highest in Division II with 1.9 percent, followed by 1.5 percent in Division III and 0.9 percent in Division I.

Only 18.6 percent of student-athletes classified as frequent sports wagerers reported wagering more than $100 in any one day on sports. More than 81 percent of the frequent sports wagerers reported never wagering more than $100 on sports in any one day.

Fewer than 2 percent of student-athletes who were not frequent sports wagerers reported ever wagering more than $100 on sports in any one day.

The survey also found that freshman student-athletes were the most likely to have indicated participation in any serious gambling behavior, including betting on their own team, accepting money or knowing of a teammate who accepted money to play poorly, being harmed or threatened due to sports wagering or providing an outside source with inside information.

Student-athletes identified with at least a potential gambling problem were more likely to participate in risky or impulsive behavior, including sexual behavior; were more likely to have parents or friends who gamble, were more likely to use and abuse substances and were more likely to have stolen in the past.