Gambling on College Athletes

Gambling threatens to undermine the integrity of intercollegiate athletics, student athletes, and their sponsoring institutions perhaps more than any other single aberrant behavior. In the past 18 months, gambling by college student athletes has become one of the greatest concerns among athletic administrators and coaches nationally. A string of gambling incidents in the sports of football and basketball has included student athletes from such leading educational institutions as Arizona State University, Boston College, University of Colorado, Columbia University, Fresno State University, Northwestern University, and the University of Cincinnati. Large amounts of money attract organized crime. The FBI estimated that 2.5 billion dollars was illegally gambled on the 1995 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, second only to the National Football League’s Super Bowl. Money skimmed from sports betting schemes is used to fund a host of illegal activities including the sale ...