Casino execs decry NCAA’s ads on gambling

David Strow and Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2001 | 11:28 a.m.

Millions of Americans watching college football bowl games on television are also seeing messages from student-athletes denouncing wagering on collegiate sporting events.

Of the 44 public service announcement slots allotted to the National Collegiate Athletic Association during bowl season, nine were devoted to PSAs featuring several student-athletes, including Virginia Tech standout quarterback Michael Vick. Their message -- those that bet on college sports, legally or illegally, are "fools."

"You're going to risk your hard-earned cash, take food off your table, betting on 18-year-olds?" the student-athletes say. "You might as well throw your money away, fool."

"If you're banking on me to make your day, don't bet on it."

The ad will be shown again tonight during the Orange Bowl.

NCAA officials say their message was aimed at all gamblers, from college campuses to Las Vegas sports book customers.

"The basic message is 'Don't waste your hard earned money betting on kids,"' NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski.

Some Las Vegas gaming officials are responding with scorn, noting that the NCAA is grossing millions of dollars during bowl season from the television networks that air the games and corporate sponsors of each game.

"You think there's a single person who was going to place a halftime bet on Washington (in the Rose Bowl), but thought better of it because of that spot?" said MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman. "You think maybe an office pool in Dallas shut down during the Cotton Bowl because of that spot?

"Our children shouldn't be used to sell corn chips, but the NCAA does," Feldman said -- a reference to the Fiesta Bowl, a game sponsored by Frito-Lay's "Tostitos" brand.

"After earning billions of dollars on the backs of student-athletes by creating the greatest amount of hype possible, they turn to us with puppy dog eyes and say, 'Don't bet on us,' " Feldman said. "That's absurd. They've created this environment, and one of the things the public likes to do is bet on the outcome (of bowl games)."

Ironically, within an hour of the PSA's airing during Tuesday night's Sugar Bowl, offshore Internet sports book SportingbetUSA.com ran an ad offering three bets for the price of two to new players. Calling itself "the nation's leading online sports book," SportingbetUSA.com said it would accept bets from anyone over 18 -- three years below Nevada's legal age for gambling.

The NCAA's PSAs come in the midst of a high-profile battle between Nevada's gaming industry and the NCAA over the practice of accepting bets on collegiate sporting events -- something that's legal only in Nevada. Last year, the NCAA was one of the primary proponents of federal legislation to outlaw all betting on college events.

Advocates for the bill said such a law would curb illegal gambling and thwart game-fixing schemes by preventing bookies from laying off bets from across the country in Las Vegas sports books -- a method used in a high-profile game-fixing scandal several years ago involving several Arizona State University basketball players.

Gamblers in Nevada sports books bet $2.3 billion last year on student-athletes, NCAA lobbyist Doris Dixon said on CNN's "Talk Back Live" last week.

"Absolutely, it's a huge problem," Dixon said. "It places a tremendous amount of pressure on these kids to have point spreads in newspapers, to have billions of dollars bet on them."

Support for the bill quickly lined up on Capitol Hill and college campuses. High-profile GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona co-sponsored the bill, and legendary coaches such as retired North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith and South Carolina football coach Lou Holtz spoke out in support of it.

The only members of Congress to strongly side with Nevada gaming interests in the fight were from Nevada's congressional delegation. They argued that Nevada's sports books are miniscule compared to the amount of illegal gambling on college events -- and that Nevada's sports books can help detect game-fixing. The ASU scandal, they noted, came to light only after Las Vegas sports books tipped off Nevada gaming regulators to unusual betting activity.

Despite the strong show of support, the bill died last year when Congress adjourned without voting on it. However, McCain and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., have vowed to re-introduce the bill as soon as possible in the new Congress -- a Congress that convenes next week.

But the NCAA says its ad campaign isn't timed to arouse public support for a new bill.

"This is not a new concerted effort," Jankowski said. "This is something that we have been doing for a while."

The ads first began airing during the "March Madness" basketball tournament in 1999, Jankowski said. Since that time, the NCAA has conducted "Don't Bet On It," a campaign designed to deter betting by college athletes.

The heads of gaming's top political organizations -- the American Gaming Association and the Nevada Resort Association -- applauded any effort by the NCAA to deter illegal betting, particularly on college campuses. But there's suspicion the ads were aimed at members of Congress as much as they were at student-athletes.

"You have to be suspicious about the timing," said NRA President Bill Bible. "If these ads are aimed at college students gambling in dormitories, at college players who are wagering with illegal bookies, or persons wagering illegally in local taverns throughout the United States, then I think the NCAA is to be commended. But this does not seem to differentiate between legal and illegal (betting), which makes me a little more suspicious about the timing."

Frank Fahrenkopf, chief executive of the American Gaming Association, said the "Don't Bet On It" campaign came at the suggestion of the AGA during meetings of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission."

"The time they're running them indicates there may be an ulterior motive, but this is something that was in the works long before there was a bill," Fahrenkopf said. "We commend the NCAA for doing something in this area, for educating student-athletes that gambling on sports is illegal outside the state of Nevada," Fahrenkopf said.

Will gaming retaliate to the ads with its own national campaign? Fahrenkopf isn't ruling out that possibility.

"We're going to wait to see what's introduce, then we'll take the appropriate steps," Fahrenkopf said. "There may be a time when we use national advertising, but at this point, no decision has been made on that."