How many gambling scandals would it take for regular fans to begin doubting the outcome of sporting events? Let’s hope we don’t find out, but the news lately has not been good.
Sports Illustrated reported earlier this month that the NCAA is investigating 13 former players from six different schools — Eastern Michigan, Temple, Arizona State, New Orleans, North Carolina A&T and Mississippi Valley State.
A press release from the NCAA said the allegations involve student players betting either on or against their own teams, providing information to third-party gamblers, deliberately manipulating scores or outcomes, and/or “refusing to participate in the enforcement staff’s investigation.” The facts vary in each case.
The allegations of “manipulating scores or outcomes” caught my eye.
Public investments at risk
As I have noted before, the state of Utah and Salt Lake City, not to mention private investors, are investing a lot of money in renovating the Delta Center, building a sports and entertainment district downtown and possibly building a Major League Baseball stadium on Salt Lake City’s west side in the next few years. They could be left holding the bag if the general public ever lost faith in the outcome of the games that will be played there as teams roll in from out of town. That’s what is at stake with sports’ newfound obsession with the riches derived from gambling.
The NCAA said it is releasing this information, minus the names of the student-athletes involved, because of the public reporting that already has been done on these cases. The subjects of the investigation all are no longer enrolled at their NCAA schools.
In a separate case, the NCAA announced this month that three men’s basketball players, two from Fresno State and one from San Jose State, were banned permanently from the sport for point shaving and betting on games last season.
A large investigation
This is likely only the beginning of an unfolding investigation that extends to pro basketball, Sports Illustrated said. It noted the filings of U.S. attorneys “imply that the scheme is significantly wider than what they have alleged so far.”
Some of the allegations involved proposition bets, or “prop bets” for short. These allow people to wager on specific aspects of an athlete’s performance, such as whether they will score less than their average in a particular game.
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has put two Cleveland Guardians pitchers, starter Luis Ortiz and closer Emmanuel Clase, on paid leave pending investigations into alleged gambling.
Cleveland sports columnist Terry Pluto noted recently that Major League Baseball has a partnership with Fan Duel, and that nearly every team has a deal with some gambling site.
He wrote that all of this “makes you wonder if this was going on with other teams ... And how many of these ‘microbets’ went undetected in the last few years? This is a mess, and it’s likely not over.”
Each scandal raises more questions.
A student athlete’s concerns
Amid all of this, Eli Thompson, a freshman quarterback at North Greenville University in South Carolina, wrote an op-ed last week for USA Today, in which he lamented that too many fellow students care more about gambling than about the actual games.
“Last spring, when I was a senior in high school, I noticed a friend furiously tapping his phone during class,” he said. “He wasn’t texting with a friend. Instead, he was placing a bet of well over $100. He was a teenager secretly using his mom’s credit card.”
When it comes to football, he said, “Some of my peers don’t feel like watching an NFL game is exciting anymore without money on the line. That’s what makes this season dangerous: Every game is a gambling opportunity.”
It often ends with out-of-control debts and failing grades.
“My friends aren’t bad kids — they’re chasing a high they don’t understand,” Thompson wrote.
Is gambling here to stay?
NCAA President Charlie Baker was quoted in a press release saying, “The rise of sports betting is creating more opportunity for athletes across sports to engage in this unacceptable behavior, and while legalized sports betting is here to stay, regulators and gaming companies can do more to reduce these integrity risks by eliminating prop bets and giving sports leagues a seat at the table when setting policies.”
I don’t think any sports fan or taxpayer participating in the cost of an arena or stadium should accept the notion that sports betting is here to stay. Utah and Hawaii are the only two states that allow no form of legalized gambling, but 12 states still do not allow any sports gambling.
With the Wasatch Front poised to expand its major league presence, state leaders should be leading the charge nationally to assure their investments are safe from a catastrophic loss of faith in the credibility of final scores.