Gambling Problems Have Pre-College Roots, Experts Tell NCAA Task Force

July 21, 2004 4:11 PM

Sports wagering among college student-athletes may be rooted in high school or even middle school, a panel of experts told the National Collegiate Athletic Assocation (NCAA) Sports Wagering Task Force during a July 12 meeting in Indianapolis.

The task force, chaired by the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame (IN), is charged with examining the NCAA National Study on Collegiate Sports Wagering and Associated Health Risks and submitting recommendations to NCAA President Myles Brand. The report is scheduled for discussion at the 2005 NCAA Convention.

In a series of presentations, a panel of experts told the task force that many people begin betting even before they enter college. The panel also said that sports wagering is more accessible now than ever before, with bookies eager to take bets from young people and the advent of Internet gambling.

Phillip J. Latessa, an assistant high school principal from Austintown, OH, discussed sports wagering on high school football in the Mahoning Valley in Northeast Ohio. For his study, Latessa talked with high school principals, football coaches, referees, law enforcement personnel and sports wagerers.

Latessa said that betting on high school football games occurs in his area, a behavior that likely happens throughout the country. He also said he has heard stories of assistant coaches and referees, including many former high school student-athletes, betting on games. Latessa suggested that any educational outreach needed to target both high school student-athletes and intercollegiate athletes.

Task force members Ken Winters, a psychiatry professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and Jeff Derevensky, co-director of the McGill University International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviors, both presented information on the best way to prevent youth gambling. The task force also heard more about the findings of the NCAA gambling study, released in May. Among the findings:

• Nearly 35 percent of male student-athletes have engaged in some type of sports wagering in the past year.
• About 10 percent of female student-athletes have engaged in similar behavior.
• About 1.1 percent of football players reported taking money for playing poorly in a game.
• About 2.3 percent of football players admitted they had been asked to affect the outcome of a game because of gambling debts.
• About 1.4 percent of football players admitted having affected the outcome of a game because of gambling debts.
• More than 3 percent of male student-athletes in all three divisions reported wagering more than $100 in any one day on any sporting event, while less than 1 percent of female student-athletes in all three divisions reported wagering.
• Of those student-athletes who reported wagering on intercollegiate sports with a bookie or on sports cards, in football pools or parlays at least once a month, the highest percentage were males in Division III (12 percent). For Division II males that figure was 8.2 percent and for Division I males it was 6.1 percent.
• In the female population, that figure was highest in Division II with 1.9 percent, followed by 1.5 percent in Division III and 0.9 percent in Division I.

For more information, see the NCAA web site.