by Manu Krishnan

The NU Athletic Department has certainly been no stranger to controversy over the past eight years. A virtually unprecedented string of success in football and a postseason berth in basketball have been tainted by an equally unprecedented string of scandals. No issue, however, has induced as much hand-wringing as the presence of collegiate betting among NU's student-athletes.

In 1998, NU suffered a major stain on its record when four former football players were indicted on charges of lying to federal grand juries investigating sports betting at the school. Dennis Lundy, Christopher Gamble, Michael Senters and Gregory Gill were charged with perjury for lying about their relationship with bookie Brian Ballarini. Lundy was also accused of intentionally fumbling a hand-off on the 1-yard line in a 1994 game against Iowa. In another incident, Basketball players Dion Lee and Dewey Williams were brought up on charges of shaving points in three games during the 1994-1995 season.

The scandals rocked the athletic department to its very core, and numerous journalists called for director Rick Taylor’s resignation. Taylor weathered the storm by distancing the department from the actions of its athletes, and while several players were punished for their role in the scandals, NU itself emerged unscathed. To this day, however, the mere mention of gambling here is enough to put people on the defensive.

But has the gambling issue on campus truly been addressed? The athletic department has clamped down hard on any wagering from its student-athletes. NU soccer player Paul Elkins said the department “really hammers home the no-betting policy. We have to watch videos every year warning us about gambling, and we’re told that we can’t place bets on any sporting events, even NCAA pools. If we’re caught in any kind of gambling, we’re done.”

Indeed, it’s hard to miss the menacing “Don’t Bet On It” posters dotting the walls of all athletic department venues.

“Sebastian,” another NU soccer player, says the policies are made so clear that athletes often pursue forms of gambling that are not explicitly forbidden. “My buddies and I like to go to the dog and race tracks, and casinos too. It’s not technically illegal, but it’s not encouraged at all,” he said.

The rules and policies on gambling by NCAA athletes are unequivocal. However, no framework exists to stop regular students from wagering on sports, collegiate or professional, including games involving NU. According to interviews with NU students, sports gambling, particularly through the Internet, is not only commonplace but exceedingly easy. With a valid credit card, a student can access one of several hundred Web sites that offer legal gambling in many forms. The overwhelming majority are based overseas, primarily in the Caribbean. The sites offer a multitude of bets on virtually every professional sport in the United States and abroad. While on the surface this form of gambling may seem no less innocent than the NCAA tournament pools in March, it can have very real consequences for those who are unlucky or irresponsible.

According to the NCAA web site, a study by the University of Cincinnati of 648 Division I intercollegiate men's basketball and football respondents indicated that “25.5 percent had gambled money on other college sporting events, 3.7 percent had gambled money on a game in which they had played, and that 0.5 percent received money from a gambler for not playing well in a game.”

The NCAA’s official statement on gambling says that the organization “opposes all forms of legal and illegal sports wagering. Sports wagering has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests, and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community. Sports wagering demeans the competition and competitors alike by a message that is contrary to the purposes and meaning of ‘sport.’”

NCAA Bylaw 10.3 prohibits athletics department staff members and student-athletes from engaging in gambling activities relating to intercollegiate or professional sporting events.

The main threat posed by athletes’ involvement in gambling is the possibility of point-shaving, as well as contact with organized crime. The NCAA’s jurisdiction, however, does not include collegiate non-athletes, and many of the dangers associated with gambling don’t go away merely because athletes themselves aren’t placing bets.

“Andrew,” a Medill senior and avid bettor, brought one alarming scenario to light: his casual contact with football and basketball players.

He says he has regular contact with NU football players, many of whom he considers friends. “I would never discuss gambling with them to get information," he said. "I would pick up little things during the course of normal conversation. It’s just that being so close to the scene, I would have more information I suppose.”

He is quick to emphasize, though, that the athletes were sure to keep him at a distance when the issue came up. “They didn’t want to have anything to do with it. In fact, they would leave the room when I was placing bets because they didn’t want to be near it.”

Betting with the Vancouver-based TheBigBook.com, Andrew says he routinely places bets of $50 on collegiate and pro sports – including NU games. “I’ve won as much as $450 in a single day,” he said. “But I’ve also lost $700 too.”

He says many students he knows wager on NU sporting events. “It’s actually pretty common among people who bet. I bet on NU football a lot two years ago, and I would lose every time because they would cover [the spread].”

“Bob,” a McCormick senior, said he used to frequently bet using the web site Intertops.com, based on the Caribbean island of Antigua. The Web site’s home page proudly boasts how easy it is to join, and prominently offers the day’s top 10 bets, including NCAA games. The site comes with all the trappings of a legitimate site for Internet commerce, including membership with PayPal, FirePay, and an extensive set of rules and regulations.

“You first decide how much you want in your account, and you charge that much to your credit card,” Bob said. “All your bets come out of that amount of money. After you zero, you can always charge more. If you win, they’ll just credit that much to your account. It’s very simple.” He also says there are virtually no limits to the type of bets that can be placed. “I’ve been able to bet on the NFL, baseball, the NBA, college football, and European soccer.”

Like most students, Bob says the betting started out small. “I started out with an account of $100, and placed bets around $30. Eventually, I would bet more, $50 and up.” When asked if he ever lost enough to get in to financial trouble, he said, “I never lost all that much money, but I have friends who lost more than $1000 of their parents’ cash. With online gambling, it’s never a case of whether you’ll have the ability to pay a bookie, since everything is paid for up front. It’s a matter of not being responsible with your credit card.”

Sports gambling is neither unexpected nor new on college campuses. College students have 24-hour access to the Internet and are living with newly-acquired geographical and financial independence. The potential for gambling addiction is higher than in any other demographic group, and so are the chances for interaction with student-athletes.

Bob said not only did he bet on NU football, but that it was “a good bet.”

“I made money off [NU teams],” Bob said. “I would bet on their basketball and football games, and won big more than once.”

If the NCAA is deeply concerned about sports being played simply for their own sake, it would appear that many of their fears are in fact being realized, no matter how stringently they enforce their rules.

Taylor echoed the NCAA’s stance on gambling. In a written statement, he said, “The Department of Athletics has a zero tolerance policy for gambling by any student-athlete.” As for gambling among non-athletes, he said, “While it is not within our purview, we discourage strongly any gambling on any sport by any person.”

NU’s athletes themselves have something of an ambivalent stance towards the gambling scene. “To be honest, I don’t even think about it,” Sebastian said. “It doesn’t affect the way we go about doing things. Most athletes don’t want to waste their time being concerned with it. If [non-athletes] want to gamble, that’s fine. I think they should be allowed to.”

When asked if the presence of gambling makes it more tempting to bend rules, he said, “Athletes are pretty good kids. If you gamble, it's a lot to risk for nothing. If you want to make a quick buck, there are other ways to do it.”

One does not have to go far to find instances of students hurting themselves through excessive gambling. “Jim,” a Weinberg sophomore, said he stopped betting after he charged too much on his credit card. “It was so tempting and so easy to just increase my account size when I was sure I was going to win a couple of games,” he said. “All it took was a couple of upsets and I thought I was in trouble.”

Jim said he was able to pay off his credit card, but not without a scare. “I had to tell my parents that I might be in trouble,” he said. “That was the worst part.”

Others are more adamant in their support for online gambling. When Senator John Kyl (R-Ariz.) introduced a bill earlier this year that would have banned all forms of online gambling, Andrew says he wrote to his senator, urging her to vote against the bill. The bill was later pronounced dead, much to his relief.

“I’ll stop when I’m not enjoying it anymore,” Andrew said. “It should be up to each person to be responsible when they are gambling. It shouldn’t be up to the government.”

One NU student has taken advantage of the gambling scene from the other perspective – by running his own online casino. Medill senior Garrett Ordower provides an online front for an Antigua-based book at CollegeGamble.com, collecting a commission as users play a variety of traditional casino games as well as bet on sports. The Web site is in its earliest stages, but Ordower says he expects the majority of users to be college students. "They would definitely have the most interest in it," he said.

While the specter of two ugly gambling scandals is slowly fading from memory, the presence of wagering on campus obviously has not waned with it. As the number of online gambling sites increases rapidly, college students only have greater access to bets on NCAA events. And while NU’s athletes may now think longer and harder about placing bets, there is nothing to suggest that other students will stop taking advantage of the easy online gambling venues.

“It’s human nature to keep doing something that’s paying you rewards,” Jim said. “A lot kids find themselves without a lot of money, and see it as an easy way to make some extra cash. Unfortunately, a lot kids won’t stop until they’ve done serious damage to their bank account or themselves.”

Manu Krishnan doesn't bet on his Redskins. You can reach him at v-krishnan@northwestern.edu.

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