Athletes at Risk Because of Gambling

The NCAA took perhaps its strongest public stance on sports gambling here Monday, putting on a session at the group’s annual convention that was clearly designed to get the attention of member schools.

Among those speaking were Tom French, who said he has been with the FBI’s Organized Crime Unit for 28 1/2 years, and Michael Franzese, a self-proclaimed former member of the Colombo family of the New York Mafia.

French said that gambling is a $170-billion-a-year industry, and that two-thirds of that number is wagered, illegally, on sports. Sports gambling is legal only in Nevada.

“Seven out of 10 [adult] Americans gamble,” French said. “I’m not sure baseball is the national pastime anymore. I think it is gambling.”

As jarring as French’s statements were, the appearance of a former Mafia member before a gathering of collegiate educators and administrators was even more so.

“What amazed me more than anything else was how easy it was to reach out to your athletes and get them to accept money in violation of NCAA rules,” said Franzese, who was released from Lompoc federal prison in 1994 after nearly a decade there for tax evasion.

Since his release, Franzese has been working with the NBA and major league baseball, delivering speeches and conducting seminars on the dangers of gambling leading to fixed games.

He said that his main connection with sports gambling was with former agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom, who had taken over representation of more than 20 of the top players in the NFL in the mid-1980s before they were thwarted by criminal charges. Franzese indicated that the goal of his group was to get control of enough players so they could manipulate games for betting purposes.

French told how a one-room bookie operation in Queens--one table, two phones--generated $600,000 in wagers on the day before one recent NCAA basketball final.

He also told of a 19-year-old who was $9,000 behind in bets and so despondent he plotted his own death by speeding on a New York freeway, then taking out a toy pistol when he was stopped by the police and pointing it at the officers.

“Don’t let anybody tell you about how gambling is a victimless crime,” French said.

Franzese’s closing message was even more chilling.

“Sports gambling is going on in the high schools,” he said. “And in the larger cities especially, the gangs are setting up their own bookmaking operations.

“Oh, yes. We are even finding gambling on the elementary school level.”

According to Bill Saum of the NCAA enforcement staff, there were printed lines on every game of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament last year, not just the Final Four games.

“We are in danger of this getting out of control,” he said. “Our coaches must stop talking about the line. We must ask lots of questions of the people who are around practice all the time. Our people must understand that it is a violation of our rule 10.3 to give out any sort of information that can help a gambler or gambling. And the NCAA will not hold conventions or formal meetings of any kind in cities where there are casinos.”

When asked afterward why the NCAA doesn’t stop the Western Athletic Conference from not only holding its annual conference basketball tournament in Las Vegas, but encouraging schools to lodge their athletes in casino hotels, rather than non-casino hotels, Saum said the NCAA does not dictate to its member conferences on those sorts of things.

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A policy allowing athletes to work part-time during the academic year has been adjusted slightly through recommendations of an NCAA Management Council subcommittee.

Most significantly, the subcommittee has recommended a $2,000 cap over and above the value of a full grant-in-aid. Among other things, backers say, a dollar cap would allay concern that the job program could become a recruiting tool.

Frank Resnick of Central Connecticut State raised the issue of work in the service industry, inquiring how to regulate the potential of a booster leaving a big tip for a student-athlete.

As before, policing of the policy and administrative duties remain a concern. The Management Council has given the jobs proposal initial approval and will send it out to the membership for a 60-day comment period. The proposal, in some form, is scheduled to take effect in August.

“We have to live with what we have or try to change it,” said Stanford Athletic Director Ted Leland, chairman of the subcommittee. “There seems to be no single solution. The water will not part and we will not see the Holy Grail. Almost all of us are going to have to compromise, and this is the best compromise I’ve been able to find.”