By: Alexis George

The NCAA, or National Collegiate Athletic Association, has long held that sports wagering does not have a place in college sports. According to the Association’s national office, it opposed every form of sports wagering, whether legal or illegal, because of its “potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests and jeopardize the welfare of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community.” [1] To further enforce this ideal, the NCAA launched a campaign called “Don’t Bet On It” which employs the use of advertisements, studies, and other resources to educate student-athletes and coaches on what is and what is not permitted according to NCAA rules regarding sports wagering.[2]  Furthermore, the NCAA has been conducting its own studies every four years since 2004 to research student-athlete gambling behavior.[3]  The NCAA has said that the purpose of these studies is to study the behavior of student-athletes – including “behaviors that could put student-athletes at risk.”[4] Up until recently the NCAA has also had the support of federal legislation to help restrict sports wagering.

Federal regulation of sports wagering began in 1961 when three laws were enacted to extend federal regulation of sports gambling.[5] These laws made sports gambling effectively illegal in the United States.[6] The first was the Wire Communications Act (WCA). The WCA made it illegal not only to use phones to send or receive bets or provide gambling information, but also made it illegal to place wagers on any sporting event using any form of wire communication.[7] This was followed by the Transportation in Aid of Racketeering Enterprises Act which essentially extended the prohibitions of the WCA to any form of travel or mail.[8] The Interstate Transportation of Wagering Paraphernalia Act was enacted thereafter and made it illegal to transport wagering pool paraphernalia related to sporting events.[9] Congress continued to implement various initiatives and other forms of federal legislation to combat and prevent sports gambling in the years afterwards until finally enacting the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 1992.[10]

PASPA was enacted by Congress to prohibit any person or government entity from creating or authorizing wagering activities that involved professional or amateur athletics.[11] The Act specifically made it unlawful for individuals and government entities to sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, license, or authorize by law any lottery, sweepstakes, betting, gambling, or wagering scheme that was directly or indirectly based on competitive sporting games in which professional or amateur athletes participated.[12] The Act therefore was very much in alignment with the NCAA’s stance on sports wagering. As a result, it meant that not only would student-athletes and coaches be violating NCAA bylaws if they participated in sports wagering, but would also be violating federal law.

Nevertheless, PASPA and the NCAA’s stance on sports wagering has stood in stark contrast to the American public’s admiration of the practice in recent years. In fact, in the months leading up to the Supreme Court’s vote to overturn PASPA, a poll conducted by the University of Massachusetts Lowell and The Washington Post indicated that 55% of Americans approved of legalizing sports wagering on professional sports.[13] Further, in a survey conducted by ESPN, it was found that 118 million Americans (or about 38% of the entire population at the time) admitted to betting on sports in 2008.[14] Another study interestingly found that Americans in fact spent more money gambling on the NCAA Tournament bracket in a week than was spent on the entire two-year 2012 presidential election campaign.[15] This means that even while PASPA was still recognized law, American engagement in sports wagering grew extensively. This is also evidenced by the continued popularity of online sports wagering and fantasy league play.[16]

Given the popularity of sports wagering in the United States and the fact that PASPA has now been overturned, the NCAA has had to make some decisions regarding how to best handle the situation, especially since the organization remains steadfastly against sports wagering among student-athletes and coaches.

One such way that the NCAA has responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling on PASPA was by issuing a statement in support of the federal regulation and even deciding to allow championships in states that choose to permit sports wagering.[17] The previous policy of the NCAA prohibited any NCAA championship competition from occurring in any state that allowed sports wagering.[18] The NCAA has also decided to do a study on how sports wagering could likely impact college sports in order to “preserve the integrity of college athletics.”[19] In order to monitor the potential impact, the NCAA national office recently decided to employ the use of technology so that it can better monitor sports wagering in the global betting market.[20] The system would provide the NCAA with alerts if suspicious wagering activities involving NCAA competitions are identified and therefore better enable the NCAA to notify member schools, conferences, and even law enforcement of suspicious activities.[21]

Despite the fact that legalized sports gambling continues to expand in the United States following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the NCAA has chosen to stick to its belief that sports wagering is inherently in opposition to what organization stands for. For example, despite the significant financial gain the NCAA stood to gain, the Association decided not to accept any profits from sports wagering.[22] The NCAA national office has said that although it recognizes that it will cost money to monitor sports wagering, it did not feel it was appropriate to access the revenue generated by sports wagering given that the organization has chosen to remain opposed to the practice.[23]

As a result, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn PASPA, the NCAA remains opposed to the practice of sports wagering and continues to advocate against student-athlete and coach involvement in the practice. Additionally, the “Don’t Bet On It” campaign continues to live on as under NCAA bylaws sports wagering by student-athletes and coaches is still strictly prohibited even in states that have adopted legalized sports wagering.

 

[1] NCAA, Sports Wagering, http://www.ncaa.org/enforcement/sports-wagering.

[2] See Id.

[3] NCAA, NCAA National Study on Collegiate Wagering, http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/ncaa-national-study-collegiate-wagering.

[4] See id.

[5] Jeffrey Roeske, Doubling Down on Sports Gambling: Why PASPA Would Fail A Constitutional Challenge, 24 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 463, 465-466 (2014).

[6] See id at 466.

[7] See id.

[8] See id.

[9] See id.

[10] See id.

[11] See id.

[12] 28 U.S.C. § 3702 (1992).

[13] Rick Maese & Emily Guskin, Poll: For first time, majority of Americans approve of legalizing sports betting, Wash. Post (Sept. 26, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/poll-for-first-time-majority-of-americans-approve-of-legalizing-sports-betting/2017/09/26/a18b97ca-a226-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html?utm_term=.401e9951b790.

[14] Darren Heitner, The Hyper Growth Of Daily Fantasy Sports Is Going To Change Our Culture And Our Laws, Forbes (Sept. 16, 2015), https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2015/09/16/the-hyper-growth-of-daily-fantasy-sports-is-going-to-change-our-culture-and-our-laws/#56148f025aca.

[15] Chris Cillizza, Americans spend more money on NCAA Tournament betting than on presidential elections. By a lot. Wash. Post (Mar. 21, 2015), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/03/21/americans-spends-more-money-on-ncaa-tournament-betting-than-on-presidential-elections-by-a-lot/.

[16] See id.

[17] Emily James, NCAA supports federal sports wagering regulation, NCAA (May 17, 2018, 10:00 AM), http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-supports-federal-sports-wagering-regulation.

[18] See id.

[19] Matt Rybaltowski, As College Football Nears, NCAA Launches Study On Sports Gambling Ramifications, Forbes (July 27, 2018, 6:00 AM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattrybaltowski/2018/07/27/as-college-football-nears-ncaa-launches-study-on-sports-gambling-ramifications/#7673a8922d0d.

[20] NCAA to use technology services to monitor sports wagering, NCAA (Sept. 4, 2018, 5:00 PM), http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-use-technology-services-monitor-sports-wagering.

[21] See id.

[22] Steve Berkowitz, NCAA will not seek a cut from sports betting, association executive says, USA TODAY (June 28, 2018, 4:43 PM), https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2018/06/28/ncaa-not-seek-revenues-sports-betting/743201002/.

[23] See id.

Image Source: https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/6695fc178ba50e8f2cd6ec6ec0f37f8c6a0d71ba/c=173-0-3827-2747/local/-/media/2016/02/19/USATODAY/USATODAY/635914742318636763-AP-NCAA-CONCUSSION-LAWSUIT-79178108.JPG?width=534&height=401&fit=crop