[NU Sports] gambling and college athletes (fwd)

[Jonathan Hodges]

What is interesting is that these gambling sites are almost all run
out of the country (i.e. Cayman Islands, etc.) where they are not
subject to any specific country's laws.  This makes tracking down the
gamblers and the bookies extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
find, particularly by the NCAA.  This is probably a reason why this
issue has not come up recently although the amount of betting on
college sports has increased by vast amounts over the past decade or
so.  Many college students have gone into gambling, leading to many
gambling addiction problems and lots of debt, especially due to the
popularity resurgance of poker recently.  No doubt that many college
athletes are in the same boat and have fallen into betting on sports
as well.  I don't think there is much that the coaches can do besides
tell them not to do it and force them to acknowledge the policy (like
alcohol policies that prohibit drinking in season, which are broken by
virtually everyone and also virtually non enforceable).  I would say
it is a greater issue to the college population at large than
specifically athletes since many college students fall into massive
gambling debt these days.  Unfortunately, the NCAA will just tell the
institutions to stop it somehow and then will jump on the chance to
punish the first violation that they find instead of designing a
program or steps to help the problem.

Jonathan

On 10/25/05, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:
> > The US gov't got credit card companies to agree (or by law, I'm not sure
> > which) a couple of years ago to refuse to deal with the off-shore gambling
> > companies.  In order to gamble, one needs to make wire transfers into an
> > account with the gambling company.  That account is then made to make wagers
> > and receive winnings.  I assume there is some way to get the money out if
> > one wins, but I don't know how it works.
>
> I just checked several online gambling sites, they're all still showing
> VISA, Mastercard and American Express icons or indicating that they accept
> those credit cards to fund your account.
>
> Even with a wire transfer there's still a paper trail.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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Jonathan W. Hodges
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