Chairman Shelby, Senator Sarbanes and other distinguished members of the committee, on behalf of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, thank you for inviting me to testify today to provide the Association's perspectives on collegiate sports wagering. This is a matter of great importance to the more than 1,000 colleges and universities that are members of the NCAA and to the hundreds of thousands of student-athletes who participate in intercollegiate athletics annually. As an individual on the NCAA staff who has spent nearly seven years working daily on this issue, it is a matter of personal and professional importance, as well.
Our message to you today is simple: We
are asking you to do what is right for the college game and what is right for
the young people who have earned the privilege of participating in those
games. We are asking you to take steps
to eliminate the opportunity for individuals to place bets on intercollegiate
sports contests on the Internet.
I am not here to promise that banning
Internet gambling is the total answer to such an insidious problem as gambling
on college sports, but it is part of the equation. The NCAA believes that there should be a prohibition on all legal
and illegal sports wagering. It is about what is right for student-athletes.
It is about what is right for college athletics.
NCAA Sports Wagering Policies and Rules
The NCAA has a clear, direct policy regarding sports gambling. The NCAA's position on sports gambling is this: The NCAA opposes all forms of legal and illegal sports wagering. Sports wagering has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community. Sports wagering demeans the competition and competitors alike by a message that is contrary to the purposes and meaning of sport. Sports competition should be appreciated for the inherent benefits related to participation of student-athletes, coaches and institutions in fair contests, not the amount of money wagered on the outcome of the competition. For these reasons, the NCAA membership has adopted specific rules prohibiting athletics department staff members and student-athletes from engaging in gambling activities as they relate to intercollegiate or professional sporting events.
The NCAA membership has adopted specific
legislation prohibiting athletics department staff members, conference office
staff and student-athletes from engaging in sports gambling activities, which
include Internet wagering. It is not
permissible to provide information to individuals who are involved in organized
gambling activities, or solicit or accept a wager on college or professional
athletics. This rule also applies to
NCAA national office staff.
In addition, in 2000, the membership
imposed stricter sanctions on those who violate our rules. Student-athletes who participate in
point-shaving activities or who solicit or accept bets that involve their own institution lose all
of their remaining eligibility. Those
who are found to have bet or accepted bets on intercollegiate or professional
athletics are ineligible for intercollegiate competition for a minimum of one
year and lose one season of competition.
We have established other Association
policies for activities associated with gambling. The NCAA Division I Men's and Women’s Basketball Championships
may not be conducted in metropolitan areas with an open legal sports book. For example, there are no men's basketball
championship sites in the state of Oregon, where the lottery is based on the outcome
of National Football League contests.
The NCAA does not permit its committees to meet or conduct formal social
activities in casinos. We have also
requested our corporate champions not to engage in promotions connected to the
outcome of games. For the fourth
straight year, we have conducted background checks on game officials who
officiate in the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships to
assure they have had no involvement in sports wagering. We do the same for the national office men's
basketball staff members; the agent, gambling and amateurism activities staff
members; and the members of the Division I Men's and Women’s Basketball
Committees.
NCAA Internet Gambling Studies and
Statistics
While the Internet offers tremendous educational
potential, this technology should not be used to circumvent state and federal
laws. Accessibility to the Internet is
perhaps the greatest reason for concern regarding Internet gambling. Many students have unlimited use of the Internet
and most residences are wired for Internet access. In fact, there may be no group in this country who has more
readily available access to computers and the Internet than students. For the NCAA, the potential exists for a
student-athlete to place a wager via the Internet and then attempt to influence
the outcome of the contest while participating on the court or the playing
field. Our students, many of whom have
access to credit cards, are lured into online gambling by unscrupulous
operators. A recent Nellie Mae study
revealed that 90 percent of 20 year olds have credit cards, with the average
number of four cards and the average debt of $2,264. The proliferation of Internet gambling is fueling the growth of
illegal sports gambling on college campuses across the country.
As an organization, we have committed to
conducting national research regarding student-athletes and sports
gambling. We recognize that estimates
indicate more than $3 billion will be wagered at 1,800 Internet gambling sites
in 2003, with 50 to 70 percent of that total coming from the U.S.
The Association has developed
relationships with and made presentations to various law enforcement groups,
including the FBI and the United States Attorney General's advisory group, campus
security officers, coaches associations and campus student life personnel. This spring we are again reaching hundreds
of our Association members through sessions about sports wagering at our annual
compliance seminars at three locations across the country.
We use a multitude of tools to educate
our student-athletes and coaches with our messages about sports wagering. Among those initiatives are locker room
visits with members of the men's and women's Final Four basketball teams, the
Frozen Four teams, and the finalists of the College World Series. Our approach is truly grassroots and must
be.
It is important to remember that the NCAA
is a member of the higher education community.
Among our primary functions are those of providing athletics participation
opportunities within the framework of higher education and providing protection
for student-athletes. We are about
education and providing information to our membership that can lead to
life-changing experiences, both in the classroom and on the playing field. Our mission as an Association is to build an
infrastructure of awareness and support to equip those involved with
student-athletes with the tools to educate them about damaging influences,
including sports wagering.
We are not an organization poised to
infiltrate illegal gambling networks.
We are not an organization with the authority or the charge to
investigate illegal gambling activities on college campuses or elsewhere. We have and continue to process cases
involving sports wagering when they come within the authority of the
organization. We have brought attention
for more than five years to a problem we would prefer didn't exist, which is
there is illegal gambling on college campuses, some involving
student-athletes. We support closer
scrutiny of illegal wagering throughout society -- this is not isolated to
college campuses -- and certainly it should be discussed within the framework
of the entire issue.
Conclusion
The NCAA's strategy to attack problems associated with wagering on college sports is multi-focused. We continue to carry the message that sports wagering is an issue for our student-athletes and we have worked diligently to educate them about the problem. But we need assistance. We believe that strong legislation is needed to prohibit gambling over the Internet.
The system of intercollegiate athletics
we have is unique to the world. We must
do everything we can to protect the rich heritage, tradition and integrity of
intercollegiate competition. We need to
do what is right for the college game and what is right for our
student-athletes and make gambling on college sports illegal everywhere all of
the time.
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