DON'T BET ON IT
Advice
to Athletes on Sports Gambling
11/03/06
You're
a college athlete…and you decide to place
a bet on a professional or collegiate game.
No big deal, right?
You
couldn't be more wrong, for two important
reasons:
First,
the NCAA—the National Collegiate Athletic
Association—has a zero tolerance policy
when it comes to sports gambling by its athletes.
Get caught betting on a game—even one
you're not playing in—and your career
as a college athlete is over.
Second,
betting opens the door to more serious involvement
with organized crime…and could get you
into even deeper trouble.
How
does that happen? Consider the following:
-
Let's
say you're a college basketball player and
you start placing bets on your own games.
Suddenly, you begin losing big. Now you
owe the campus bookie several thousand dollars
and can't afford to pay up. (And by the
way, that bookie may not be an actual mobster,
but probably pays up the line to one.)
-
But
you have something the bookie wants: access
to inside information and the ability to
change the outcome of a game. Both can
be very lucrative for organized crime syndicates.
-
So
you may be asked to play just a shade below
your potential in an upcoming game that
your team is favored to win. "They
tell the athlete, 'We don't want your team
to lose, just win by six instead of 12,'"
says Supervisory Special Agent Jon Bunn,
who works on organized crime issues in our
Criminal Investigative Division. The mobsters
then bet heavily against the point spread
and make a lot of money.
-
So
you're off hook after the game, right?
Not so fast. "Mobsters never consider
it a one-time deal," said Tom Metz,
assistant chief of our Transnational Criminal
Enterprises Section. "They will probably
blackmail you to keep you participating
in their schemes." For example, instead
of point shaving, you may be asked for information—such
as who is injured or who may miss a game—that
gives these crooks an edge on betting on
the spread.
These
dangers are exactly why agents around the
nation make annual presentations to college
athletes about the dangers of sports gambling.
Agent Bunn, for example, talks with the final
16 men's and women's college basketball teams
every year.
"Like
it or not, if you are a student athlete you
are vulnerable to outside influences just
because of who you are," said Agent Bunn.
"It's important to understand how just
risky and dangerous betting on sports really
is."
So
college athletes: please take our advice and
don't gamble with your future!
Link:
FBI
Sports Bribery Program
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