Commission told growing number introduced to gambling on college campuses

Robert Macy

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1998 | 10:02 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - Scandals involving sports betting are occurring with increasing frequency, and many involve students on college campuses, a gambling panel was told.

William Saum, a representative of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, told the National Gambling Impact Study Commission that students can easily find illegal bookies on campus.

The commission was formed by Congress to study the social and economic impact of gambling on the nation.

The panel also heard from sportscaster Bob Costas, who told of learning sports at an early age from his father, a compulsive gambler.

And Mitzi Schlichter told how her former husband, quarterback star Art Schlichter, went from fame to infamy because of crimes committed to feed a voracious sports gambling habit.

Commissioners were told that legal sports betting in Nevada draws $2.4 billion a year while illegal sports betting runs anywhere from $80 billion to $380 billion annually. Nevada is the only state in the nation where betting on sports events is legal.

Saum said the public was shocked in the late 1940s to learn that the City College of New York basketball team was involved in a point shaving scandal. He said incidents have been reported with growing frequency the past three years, including:

- A point-shaving scam at Arizona State University;

- A point-shaving scandal at Northwestern University;

- Betting on college sports events by Maryland players;

- Incidents at Boston College where players bet against their own team;

- A Cal-State Fullerton athlete was offered money to shave points; and

- A large sports gambling ring was operating, in part, out of a Columbia University fraternity house.

"The influence of sports gambling is far reaching and sports organizations continually live in fear that sports gambling will infiltrate and undermine the contest itself," Saum said.

"Student bookies are present at every institution," he added.

A recent University of Cincinnati/NCAA-sponsored study randomly surveyed 2,000 male student athletes in Division I basketball and football programs. The survey found that more than 25 percent of the athletes reported gambling on college sporting events other than their own while in college, and 4 percent said they wagered on games in which they had played, Saum said.

The advent of Internet gambling presents a whole new series of problems, Saum said.

Commission member James Dobson asked Saum if the NCAA differentiates between legal and illegal sports betting.

"The NCAA is opposed to legal and illegal sports wagering," Saum replied. "But if we're going to have legal sports betting, let's keep it in Nevada. We would jump to our feet if it were to expand outside Nevada."

Costas recalled growing up in a family in which "life was turned inside out" by his father's compulsion with gambling. He said he learned about sports by following baseball, basketball and hockey games in which his father had "hundreds or thousand of dollars invested."

And he recounted going out to the family car to pick up some distant game because the radio reception was better, running back to tell his father the score if it was good news, hedging if it was bad.

Costas said his network, NBC, has de-emphasized providing point spreads on games which some believed encouraged gambling.

Mitzi Schlichter recounted the fall from glory of her former mate, who was a star quarterback at Ohio State and in the National Football League before he was destroyed by a gambling habit.

"He had everthing going for him and he lost it all," she said. "He lost his reputation, his family, his freedom."

Art Schlichter was sentenced last year to at least four years in an Indiana prison after his fifth criminal conviction. Prosecutors estimate he had stolen about $800,000 to feed his gambling addiction, and also had convictions for theft, forgery and fraud.

Mitzi Schlichter is now director of consumer services for Trimeridian, Inc., an Indianapolis, Ind.-based company that offers treatement for compulsive gambling.

Las Vegas is the sixth and final city to be visited by the nine-member gambling commission, which was formed last year. It will present a report to the president by June 20, 1999.

In welcoming the commission, Gov. Bob Miller touted Nevada's strict regulatory policies. He noted that both Indian gambling and Internet gambling are unregulated and pose a threat to the regulated industry.

"To compare regulated gaming to Internet or Indian gaming is like comparing apples to oranges, order to chaos," the governor said.