Study: Game officials gamble, some on sports using bookies

Geralda Miller

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 9:07 a.m.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Five in six NCAA Division I football and basketball game officials surveyed say they gamble, with some betting on sports and using bookies.

A University of Michigan study found that 2.4 percent of those surveyed were problem gamblers, based on a standard used to diagnose pathological gamblers, and four officials, or 0.8 percent of those surveyed, were rated as pathological gamblers.

Two officials said they were approached by someone about fixing a game, two said their awareness of the point spread resulted in "their officiating with a level of bias," and 12 officials said they knew of colleagues who had not called a game fairly because of gambling reasons.

The yearlong study of Division I game officials was released Wednesday. It found that 84.4 percent have gambled since becoming a college official.

The study also found that approximately 40 percent have gambled on sports and 22.9 percent have bet on the NCAA tournament. And it found that 2.2 percent of sports officials have used a bookie.

The data in the report, "NCAA Division I Officials: Gambling with the Integrity of College Sports?" were collected from questionnaires mailed to 1,462 Division I sports officials in January 1999. The university said 640 officials, or 43.8 percent, responded.

"I think what this tells us is that we have to continue to be diligent about our efforts to keep this issue before sports officials," NCAA spokesman Wallace Renfro said.

The NCAA is responsible for hiring and training its game officials.

Renfro said that if the numbers are accurate, the percentage of officials betting on college games heightens the NCAA's anxiety.

In 1996, Congress created a National Gambling Impact Study Commission and asked it to report on the effect of betting on the nation.

In November 1998, commissioners were told that illegal sports betting takes in as much as $380 billion annually, dwarfing the $2.4 billion bet legally on sports in Nevada.

The university said it decided to conduct the study because game officials have the greatest potential to influence the outcome of sporting competitions and may be the most vulnerable to gambling.

"The presence of gambling and the problems created are in every part of society. College athletics are no different," said Ann Vollano, co-author and assistant director of compliance in the athletic department.

Renfro said the NCAA's education efforts with game officials have been ongoing for the past three years.

An FBI representative meets with basketball officials in fall clinics and will meet with the officials of the last three Final Four games, he said.

Background checks have been conducted on the tournament officials, Renfro said.