The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has identified gambling by athletes as a major threat to the integrity of intercollegiate athletics and responded with the development of a comprehensive education program for student athletes at NCAA member schools.
A reminder on the NCAA website reads:
The NCAA opposes all forms of legal and illegal sports wagering, which has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community.
Betting opens the door to more serious involvement with organized crime…and could get you into even deeper trouble.
How does that happen? Below is an excerpt from an article on FBI.gov:
• Let’s say you’re a college basketball player and you start placing bets on your own games. Suddenly, you begin losing big. Now you owe the campus bookie several thousand dollars and can’t afford to pay up. (And by the way, that bookie may not be an actual mobster, but probably pays up the line to one.)
• But you have something the bookie wants: access to inside information and the ability to change the outcome of a game. Both can be very lucrative for organized crime syndicates.
• So you may be asked to play just a shade below your potential in an upcoming game that your team is favored to win. “They tell the athlete, ‘We don’t want your team to lose, just win by six instead of 12,’” says Supervisory Special Agent Jon Bunn, who works on organized crime issues in our Criminal Investigative Division. The mobsters then bet heavily against the point spread and make a lot of money.
• So you’re off hook after the game, right? Not so fast. “Mobsters never consider it a one-time deal,” said Tom Metz, assistant chief of our Transnational Criminal Enterprises Section. “They will probably blackmail you to keep you participating in their schemes.” For example, instead of point shaving, you may be asked for information—such as who is injured or who may miss a game—that gives these crooks an edge on betting on the spread.
The NCAA has responded with the development of a comprehensive education program called "Don’t Bet on It" for use by NCAA member institutions and the public regarding the impact sports wagering.