PHOENIX — The NCAA and universities are changing how they enforce and monitor sports betting in light of scandals and legalization in more than 35 states.
The association - which oversees more than 500,000 student-athletes - is quickly realizing their policies, and the enforcement of them, need to evolve to keep up with the rapidly changing gambling landscape and prevalence on college campuses.
Right now, college athletes, coaches, and staff are prohibited by the NCAA from betting on nearly every major sport, regardless of league.
Recent scandals, though, have revealed a growing problem for the governing body – how do you monitor more than half a million student-athletes, coaches, and staff, to ensure the integrity of their games?
“When you have increased accessibility and availability, you're going to start to see people experiment,” said Dan Trolaro, U.S. Vice President of Prevention with EPIC Risk Management.
EPIC Risk Management is a gambling harm reduction company that contracts with the NCAA to speak at universities across Arizona and the country.
“We know that college athletes are up to four times more susceptible to developing gambling related problems,” said Trolaro, who spoke at more than 60 college campuses last year.
“They have personality traits that might lend themselves to addiction. They're risk takers. They're competitive. They have a fear of failure. They've been playing sports their whole life…[and] tend to think their experience puts them at a better chance of winning,” Trolaro said.
While Trolaro, universities, and the NCAA say they are all about gambling prevention, they are also realistic that some student-athletes are betting.
“It's not going away, it's only going to continue to grow,” said Trolaro.
“We would have our head in the sand to not think that there's a prevalence of student-athletes out there,” said Clint Hangebrauck, the NCAA’s Managing Director of Enterprise Risk Management.
The current NCAA rule is explicit in its prohibition:
“[They] cannot bet on any sport, at any level, in which we hold a championship,” said Hangebrauck.
On its website, the NCAA states, “Sports wagering has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests and jeopardizes the well-being of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community. It also demeans the competition and competitors alike by spreading a message that is contrary to the purpose and meaning of ‘sport.’”
The NCAA and universities though, know the practice is still happening.
In 2016, before sports betting was legalized in more than 30 states, the association conducted a gambling study.
The survey found “24% of men reported violating NCAA bylaws within the previous year by wagering on sports for money.”
Hangebrauck expects that number to be higher in the 2024 survey.
“I do think there's a fair amount of that activity happening again,” said Hangebrauck.
The question many people are asking in light of the scandals and changing legal landscape: Should the NCAA pivot from its historically hardline stances?
Many Arizonans we talked to said they have no problem with college athletes or coaches betting on professional sports, assuming they do not have any insider information.
“If they’re in basketball and want to bet on baseball, I have no problem with that. Just as long as they don’t bet on their own sport,” said Gary Kuznia, a sports bettor who lives in downtown Phoenix.
“If you’re over the age of 21 you should be able to,” said an Arizonan named Jared.
Hangebrauck said the NCAA is viewing current sports betting violations on a “spectrum from just participating in sports betting…all the way to match fixing and competitive manipulation.”
He told ABC15 the association's main focus is on egregious ‘integrity concerns’ that potentially impact a game’s outcome.
“I think there has to be more of a punitive side to that work,” said Hangebrauck. “We've had a lot of good conversations recently…like you're bringing up, where it's a baseball kid that bet on [the] NBA. Instead of having a punitive element let's have a rehabilitative element.”
Already, the NCAA is considering a softening of its outright ban.
“I think there [are] conversations happening within different membership groups on, ‘is this an area that we may want to consider liberalizing at some point?’,” said Hangebrauck.
The potential for more nuance and leniency does not mean the NCAA and universities plan to turn a blind eye towards student-athletes or coaches violating the current rules.
There are a number of ways in which sports betting is monitored and policed, including anonymous tip lines, geo-location tracking, and monitoring suspicious bets.
There is no single agency or organization responsible for potential violations. The NCAA, universities, private companies, sportsbooks, and state gaming commissions all work together, with various degrees of information sharing, to hold bad actors accountable.
