Gambling fever among college athletes catches NCAA's attention

Wanna bet?

The odds are pretty good that you do.

The National Survey of Adult Gambling Behavior of 1998 indicated two in three adult Americans had gambled at least once in the previous year. Americans wagered about $17 billion on legalized gambling in 1977, and that number was up to $60 billion last year and continues to grow.

Gambling is such a part of Americana that even non-gamblers innocently utter phrases such as, "I wouldn't bet on it," "I like those odds," and "Put your money where your mouth is."

So it's no surprise that gambling is prevalent on college campuses. Hence, it should be no surprise that college athletes and coaches gamble.

University of Washington is in the process of firing football coach Rick Neuheisel for participating in an NCAA Tournament pool, and former Florida State quarterback Adrian McPherson has been accused of gambling on college and professional football games over the Internet -- including games in which he played.

To many, the surprise is not that those cases came to light but that there aren't more revealed.

"I'm not shocked, and I'm sure the NCAA is not shocked," said Arnie Wexler of New Jersey, a recovering gambling addict who has been counseling compulsive gamblers for more than 30 years. "Anybody that knows anything about gambling knows it's running rampant on college campuses."

Wexler has delivered his anti-gambling message to gaming industry executives, Fortune 500 corporations, legislative bodies, and on many college campuses.

"It's an explosion, an epidemic if you will, on college campuses and I don't care which college you go to," he said. "It's easier to place a bet on a college campus than it is to buy a can of beer or a pack of cigarettes."

A study at the University of Michigan found 72 percent of student-athletes (specifically football and basketball players) and 80 percent of males had participated in some type of gambling since entering college. Of more concern to the NCAA is the finding that 35 percent of student-athletes and 45 percent of males had gambled on some form of sports.

Bill Saum, the director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities for the NCAA, said the organization plans to do its own major study of the issue in September, surveying 30,000 athletes -- male and female -- in all three of its divisions. It expects to find similar results.

"We believe those numbers are accurate and the studies were well done," Saum said. "Those numbers are significant and they concern us, and that's why we spend so much time and effort with our athletes, coaches and athletic staff members to educate them on the ills of sports wagering."

Wexler doubts whether the NCAA's attack of the problem is effective, and the numbers seem to support his contention.

More than a quarter of the basketball and football players surveyed for a University of Cincinnati study had gambled on college sporting events, with 3.7 percent of them having bet on a game in which they participated.

That would translate to at least four players on every college football program's 125-man roster having at some point bet money on or against his team.

"Our kids have been so desensitized," Saum said. "I think our athletes know it is illegal, but they don't think they'll get caught and they see it as harmless. I don't think they understand how quickly it can get out of control."

University of Texas quarterback Chance Mock said the numbers don't shock him, but he questions the significance of them in terms of friendly wagering compared to hard-core gambling.

"It's a simple deal: a guy will say, `Hey, I think so-and-so is going to win,' and another guy will go, `No, they're not.' Next thing you know, there's a $5 bet on it," Mock said. "I can see that. But I can't see one-in-four (athletes) going to a bookie and putting money on a game. That's a serious deal."

Mock believes UT and the NCAA does a thorough job of educating athletes about gambling.

UT media relations director John Bianco said each year the school shows its athletes an NCAA-produced video on gambling, brings in NCAA-sponsored speakers on the issue and has its compliance department conduct a workshop on gambling activities.

NCAA bylaws stipulate that an athlete who participates in point-shaving activities, or bets or takes bets on their own institution, loses all of his or her remaining eligibility. Those who bet on other sports lose eligibility for a minimum of one year.

Mock said if Florida State followed UT's pattern, it would be unlikely for McPherson, who investigators claim owed $8,000 to a man who placed bets for him, not to know that what he was doing was against NCAA regulations.

The only athlete ever to be named "Mr. Football" and "Mr. Basketball" in Florida in the same year, McPherson was charged with a misdemeanor for gambling, but the judge declared a mistrial this month after the jury couldn't agree.

Florida State football team equipment manager Jeffrey Inderhees was charged with a felony count of bookmaking in the case.

McPherson, who started four games for the Seminoles last season, is accused of having bet on every Florida State game -- each time on them to cover the point spread -- and he faces a separate charge of theft for a stolen check that was cashed for $3,500.

"There's no way you can make everybody listen, but they tell us about the problem," Mock said. "You go in our locker room and there's posters on doors that we go in and out of everyday with the slogan `Don't Bet On It,' and stuff like that.

"With as much as the NCAA is against it and tries to inform us about the consequences, it's shocking. It's shocking that somebody with that much potential to have a good career would get into something like that."

Saum said the NCAA is working eight or nine gambling cases (including the McPherson and Neuheisel cases), none that involve point-shaving. He acknowledges the investigation-enforcement-punishment rate in recent years is "certainly not reflective of the amount of gambling going on."

Wexler believes that is stating it as mildly as it can be put. He said he regularly gets phone calls to his hotline (1-888-LAST-BET) from college students and athletes who are in trouble because of their gambling. Some of them are stunning.

Sometime within the past decade, Wexler was contacted by a basketball player at a Big 12 school who owed a bookie $60,000. The bookie, a former player at the school, contacted the coach and athletic director to help him collect.

North Carolina football coach John Bunting confirmed to the Chronicle that when he was the head coach at Glassboro State (1988-92), an NCAA Division III school now known as Rowan, he had Wexler speak to his team because of his suspicions of gambling activity among his players.

Apparently, on the bus ride home following a loss, Bunting thought a celebration of the final score of a game the team was listening to on the radio was because a number of players might have bet on its outcome.

Bunting indicated this occurred well before the NCAA intensified its anti-gambling campaign. In 1995, the year the FBI projected $2.5 billion were illegally gambled on the NCAA basketball tournament, the NCAA implemented tougher guidelines for restoration of eligibility in gambling cases. Not long thereafter, Saum's position was created.

The Neuheisel case is believed to be the first involving a high-profile coach. Neuheisel admitted to being in NCAA Tournament auction pools the last two years that allegedly cost him more than $6,000 and netted him twice his investment.

Kevin Fite, associate athletics director for compliance and eligibility at the University of Houston, makes sure to remind staffers each year around NCAA Tournament time that participation in pools are not allowed. He said he would be, "extremely surprised and concerned if a staffer did not know that participation in pools are not allowed."

Saum said that with as many cases as it has processed and as many times as the NCAA has told its members such pools are out-of-bounds, it is unlikely for a staff member not to know. Neuheisel claims a university memo indicated such participation was within the rules. He is appealing the school's decision to fire him.

The NCAA regularly has cases of athletic department staffs that run their own office pool for the NCAA Tournament. In those cases, the NCAA typically lets them off with a warning and a reminder pools are against the rules, because most of the pools are low stakes.

Saum would not comment on Neuheisel's case, but he said the NCAA has to treat high-stakes pools differently based on the amount of money involved.

"The amount of money wagered impacts the seriousness of the act," Saum said. "When it comes to betting with a bookie, we don't treat it differently. We say, `if you bet $1 or a $100 with a bookie, you're done for a year.'

"When it comes to pools, a $1 pool is certainly against our rules, but we need to be reasonable. A $1 pool is not going to change the outcome of a game."

The implication there is that one thing leads to another: the more money on the table, the more likely the integrity of the game will be compromised.

That leads to a problem Wexler has with the NCAA's handling of the gambling issue. He believes all types of gambling involving athletes could evolve into point-shaving.

"The NCAA is only concerned with illegal and legal gambling on sporting events," Wexler said. "That's a mistake. I don't care if players are shooting craps in the hallways, or betting on card games, eventually, if they get in (debt) from that gambling, they're going to think about doing something they shouldn't be doing.

"That's when the NCAA will get interested, but it'll be too late."

Wexler calls the NCAA's gambling initiative more of a scare tactic than a method of education and prevention.

Mock agreed in a sense, but couldn't deny its effectiveness.

"It is almost a scare deal," he said. "You watch a video of a guy whose life was ruined by gambling and it hits home.

"I'm not a gambler -- I don't have the money to do it. I know I've never bet on anything since I've been here ... I'm too scared I'd get caught."


By JEROME SOLOMON