Bets abound in mid-semester madness

March Madness has arrived. People in dorm rooms and office cubicles are filling brackets,… March Madness has arrived. People in dorm rooms and office cubicles are filling brackets, throwing $5s and $10s into the pool and keeping up with the games on television and the Internet.

No one seems to be getting in trouble, but is it legal?

No, it is not, says John Burkoff, professor of law at Pitt.

“Gambling is mostly unlawful, but for the most part things like office pools are not the things police departments are interested in,” he said.

Prosecutors and police departments usually stay away from office pools, he said, as long as they remain low key and the organizer is not profiting. As soon as outside bookkeepers are involved, however, it is more likely to catch the eye of the law.

Online betting is a newer part of the March Madness gambling craze, with more than 70,000 Web sites devoted to sports gambling.

“It’s 100 percent illegal,” Burkoff said. “Just because it is online, the laws don’t change.”

The situation becomes much more serious for student-athletes.

“Sports wagering is a big concern of mine and I think everyone involved with collegiate athletics,” said Jeff Long, Pitt’s athletics director and one of 25 members of the NCAA Sports Wagering Task Force.

Gambling can lead to debt, which makes student-athletes more susceptible to the temptations of point shaving, Long said. Students may also be approached by bookies hoping to get inside information on the team.

NCAA laws state that no student-athlete may bet on a sport that NCAA sponsors, no matter what level.

For example, a student-athlete may bet on horse racing, because the NCAA does not sponsor horse racing, but he or she may not bet on professional football or Olympic volleyball, because football and volleyball are NCAA sports.

According to a study done by the NCAA Sports Wagering Task Force in 2003, only 59.6 percent of Division I male athletes and 39.8 percent of Division III male athletes knew the NCAA rules on sports wagering.

Seventeen percent of Division I men had wagered on college sports, while 28.8 percent of Division I men had wagered on college or pro sports.

The penalties are high.

Students caught wagering on a team from their own institution face permanent loss of eligibility. Students caught wagering on professional or college teams outside of their institution face loss of eligibility for at least one year.

Education about the rules is crucial to stopping illegal gambling among student-athletes, says Donna Sanft, the Athletics Department’s director of compliance.

“We have a section on gambling in the student-athlete handbook and review with each team in the fall. We periodically have speakers come onto campus,” she said.

Students must also sign a statement saying they have read the rules and they will not break them.

“Sports gambling is a very serious issue,” Sanft said. “Gambling in general can lead to serious consequences for anybody, but sports gambling by student-athletes affects the integrity of the sport.”