Sports Gambling Education: Is it On The NCAA, Compliance Teams, Or Both?

The National Collegiate Athletic Association oversees over 1,000 universities in their three-level divisional structure all across the United States of America. As the NCAA is not just responsible for helping create programs for young adults to continue their athletic careers after they graduate high school, they also need to ensure that each player is a fair representation of all that the NCAA stands for in their mission. This organization is constantly working to provide resources to its members, but this means that they have to effectively understand trends in society that could affect team security, safety, and most importantly in the world of sports, the integrity of the game.

Sports betting dates back to Las Vegas, Nevada beginning as early as 1931, being the only state to allow this. In 2018, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PAPSA) worked to address the previous legislation which limited states from involvement in sports betting whereas their new ruling allows states to work at their own pace promoting their own rules on this topic how they see fit (Bonesteel, 2022). As gambling begins to grow in popularity, most sports consumers are no longer able to watch the game without placing a wager ahead of time to enhance their viewer experience. With more money on the line, the pressure is on, not only for those placing bets but for those who are subjected to being the topics of them: the players.

According to the National Council on Problem Gambling fact sheet on college gambling, about “67% of all college athletes bet on sports,” and “only 22% of universities have a formal policy on gambling” (The National Council on Problem Gambling, 2023). In both professional and collegiate sports, there have been numerous incidents where athletes and coaching personnel have been caught wagering on sports that they have direct contact with or in general when sports gambling is something that they are prohibited from participating in in any capacity. On the collegiate side more specifically, teams such as Iowa State University and the head coach of the Men's Baseball Team at Alabama have faced repercussions of termination or suspension for betting on their game or other school sports (Maese & Funt, 2023). In 2023, it was reported that since 2018, there have been 175 incidents of sports gambling and currently 17 ongoing investigations that have violated NCAA rules on collegiate athletics personnel placing wagers (Anderson, 2023). Both the example and statistic identify the call for stronger education for all collegiate athletic staff from top to bottom to protect the sports that people know and love and most importantly, the integrity of the game which plays a large factor in why people support athletics, especially their alma maters.

The NCAA has already put the work in trying to combat this issue through partnerships with EPIC Risk Management and U.S. Integrity. With there still being investigations and players getting caught, there needs to be more done directly within athletic programs to protect the security of their team and their name. The NCAA is a step in the right direction with their constant evaluations and most recently, the release of their first-ever electronic interactive teaching tool that uses a diverse group of athletes who come together to inform current and future NCAA athletes on wagering. Although these push NCAA guidelines, procedures, and resources to provide security to the integrity of collegiate athletics and to the athletes themselves, more preventive measures are needed in place to tackle this issue.

At athletic facilities across college campuses, these pieces of training should be in-person, constant, updated, and evaluated by compliance teams. For instance, Ohio State University (OSU) is working to align its state’s new legislation rules on sports gambling so that athletes understand the NCAA policy in relation to this new addition to the area surrounding them. The OSU compliance staff takes into consideration what exactly NCAA policy prohibits and stands for and chooses to educate all levels of their athletic department. For example, they use items like presentations and revolving graphics around common areas where teams are present to make certain that everyone knows what the clear rules of the NCAA are, despite the new sports wagering rules of Ohio getting thrown in the faces of athletes and staff members (Luderman, 2023). This step from one university alone is a perfect example of how wagering can be prevented and the integrity of athletes can be upheld. Compliance teams of universities can act individually and collectively with the NCAA-developed platforms to instruct their athletic departments properly in alignment with what the state they are located in permits, but also what members of the NCAA are allowed to do when it comes to wagering in adherence to their policies and training.

As both of these concepts of educating more, whether it be from the NCAA directly in person and more effectively or through a combined effort of compliance teams and NCAA models, would improve the security of collegiate athletics on this subject, it does have limitations or flaws to it. The NCAA is spending money on partnerships and technologies to combat this issue. Still, with lots of dollars going into these platforms and educational training and there still being reports of continued gambling incidents from athletes, the NCAA is paying a lot for a service that is helpful, but not entirely preventing issues from happening in the first place.

Another idea is that with schools being responsible for teaching their athletic departments on this topic, there is no way of telling how compliance teams are reaching student-athletes and if their diverse methods are working. As there are over 1,000 schools under the NCAA divisional structure, they all need to be in unison in relation to the NCAA’s governance of sports gambling. Although these universities overlap in their approach and execution at times, there are cases where schools try to understand what better reaches their staff which can be either effective or ineffective across the board. At Purdue, their compliance team has a skit as a part of their training that provides real-life examples allowing athletes to engage and get a real perspective whereas at Cal State Fullerton, their team sends our reminders via email, especially during events like March Madness and the Super Bowl, helping athletes remember NCAA and school protocol with betting (Dorson, 2022).

Though both are beneficial tactics from compliance teams solely, using the same collective measures and combining forces as one with these innovative ideas could be more productive in thoroughly educating for the prevention of involvement in placing wagers. If schools were to only use NCAA guidelines as a base and develop their own methods of educating, it would cause complications through a lack of consistency such as if an athlete or staff member were to join the community of another university. Even though this problem falls under the NCAA and compliance departments, it is up to the student-athletes to take this information and incorporate it into their development since we all are humans and make our own choices no matter how often something is drilled into our heads. It is also important for the athletes to recognize their own state laws in relation to the state they play in as well as factor in NCAA policy when thinking on this topic which is where compliance teams are heavily needed.

Compliance teams need to reinforce NCAA rules, but they also need to step up and consistently work with their teams and put this information in front of them before they fall into the trap of placing a wager and impacting their current or prospective career in athletics. Sports betting is now accessible in those legalized states at the touch of a fingertip, allowing anyone who can verify an account the ability to bet or be exposed to the pressures of gambling. For athletes, this pressure, whether directly or indirectly involved could influence them to either bet or change their performance on the field or court. Compliance can help assist in getting this information out there fast and effectively as more betting software is being updated and released and more apps and promotional content are making it easy to get involved.

Jonathan Howe #CollegiateAthletics #legalizedgambling #sportsgambling #NCAA #DONTBETONIT #complianceteams #studentathletes #betting #SRM4296 #TempleUniversity