Basketball at casino prompts student gambling worries

Diane Scarponi

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 10:41 a.m.

MONTVILLE, Conn. -- A new player is muscling into the big-money melee around college basketball: gambling casinos, which want to offer college games as part of their entertainment mix.

The NCAA, which struggles to keep college sports free of sleazy agents, product promotions and gambling, is cool to the idea.

A test case may come at Mohegan Sun, a casino in the southeastern Connecticut woods run by the Mohegan Indian tribe. The casino wants to host college basketball games in its 10,000-seat arena, scheduled to open this fall.

Central Connecticut State University has agreed to play UMass in December, said Central athletic director C.J. Jones. The casino also is trying to line up a men's and women's doubleheader.

Jones said the players won't be exposed to the casino.

"We're going to educate kids," he said. "We're not going to the casino before or after the game."

Betting on college sports is illegal in Connecticut, even at the Indian casinos, which operate on sovereign territory.

Still, the NCAA prefers that college basketball teams play elsewhere.

"Part of our concern is the mixed messages student athletes receive by traveling to his type of facility to participate in a game, given the message we're trying to send -- that we believe it's wrong for sports gambling to occur on college student athletics," said Jane Jankowski, assistant director for public relations at the NCAA.

Mohegan Sun officials dispute that college basketball will be tainted if games are played at casino arenas.

"The NCAA is hypocritical," shot back Paul Munick, vice president of sports and entertainment at Mohegan Sun. "There is gambling in every state. If there were no casinos, period, there would still be gambling on games."

Mitchell Etess, executive vice president for marketing at Mohegan Sun, said the casino markets to people age 35 and up, not to college students.

People under age 21 are not allowed to gamble in the casinos. The basketball games would attract alumni, parents and sports fans, if not to the casino, then to the restaurants, shows and other attractions Mohegan Sun offers.

"There have been problems historically in college programs. I don't (think) there have been any casinos in any of those cities where there were scandals," Etess said Thursday.

Colleges from Maine to California have been caught up in gambling scandals over the past 10 years. Students were accused of gambling on college games and of "point-shaving," or decreasing the margins of victory for their teams.

The NCAA is casting a more critical eye on plans to hold college basketball games at Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas, because Nevada is the only state where gambling on college sports is legal. A game between Fresno State and Gonzaga is scheduled for that casino on Dec. 8.

Some members of congress are trying to pass a law this spring to outlaw gambling on college games in Nevada.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun, who's led his team to a national title in 1999, has testified before congress in favor of legislation to stop all legal betting on college athletics. Calhoun also has an established relationship with the Mohegan casino, which sponsors his annual charity golf tournament. He will take part in a coaches clinic, along with Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Utah coach Rick Majerus, at the casino June 8-9.

Calhoun was not available for comment Thursday. Phone messages were left for him at his office. He recently told the Hartford Courant that speaking at the casino clinic wouldn't send mixed message, but hesitated when asked if he might schedule a UConn game at the new arena.

"I'm not sure," Calhoun told the Courant. "I can't see us bringing our kids down there. Not because we think it's something bad. But I don't know if that wouldn't be a conflict for the kind of things we stand for."

The NCAA has no control over where individual schools play regular-season games. The issue may come up at a committee meeting in June.

The way Jones sees it, the Mohegan Sun arena offers Central Connecticut the chance to play a bigger-name team, such as UMass, in neutral territory. Central's Detrick Gymnasium seats about 3,200.

The Blue Devils are not a household name, but they have had their recent successes. They made it to the NCAA Division I tournament in 2000 for the first time.

"I'm not sure there's people betting on Central Connecticut," Jones said with a laugh. "We're not a team that is going to have a line every game that people are going to be betting on."