Gamblers sat in suspense as time ticked away in last Thursday’s opening-round NCAA Tournament game between Texas Tech and Charlotte.

Texas Tech needed to win by more than four points to beat the spread set by Vegas odds-makers. But Charlotte’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer changed the game for gamblers.

Even though Charlotte lost, 76-73, those who bet on it won.

Bill Saum, the NCAA’s director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities, was in Las Vegas and saw firsthand the reactions of gamblers.

‘Fans of Texas Tech had just seen their team win the game,’ Saum said, ‘but they were frustrated and mad because they’d lost their bets. That’s not about the purity of the game. That’s not what we want. We don’t want interest based on gambling.’

The only state in which it is legal to gamble on sports is Nevada. It is illegal in New York, and it is illegal on the Syracuse University campus.

The Student Code of Conduct forbids illegal gambling on campus – but its legality has not affected its popularity.

Gambling pools are prevalent everywhere – in business offices, in circles of friends and, despite university regulations, in residence halls.

‘I think I know like two people who aren’t in a pool right now,’ said Richard Ellis, a sophomore speech communication major.

Immediately after the NCAA releases the tournament brackets, ESPN and CBS analysts offer advice on the best picks and strategies.

These outlets claim they are simply promoting the sport, not condoning gambling. ESPN.com Senior Publicist Paul Melvin uses this same logic in defending his Web site’s Tournament Challenge.

The challenge isn’t gambling, he says, because it’s a free contest. It’s perfectly legal as long as contestants don’t have to pay for their entry, said Travis Lewin, a law professor at Syracuse University.

This year the Tournament Challenge will award $10,000 to the person who most accurately fills out a bracket and a 32-inch HDTV to a random entrant.

ESPN.com’s contest is a step better than head-to-head gambling, Saum said. The ESPN.com site allows its users to set up private groups, which amount to online, digitized versions of the paper pools that prevail in offices and dorms. This year the Tournament Challenge has well over a million entries.

Saum says his ultimate goal is to eliminate all outside monetary involvement from NCAA athletics.

It’s possible, he said, ‘if enough people become committed to the cause.’

While any SU student can face punishment for gambling on athletics, the punishments for student athletes can be much harsher.

‘Gambling is prohibited, period, by players and staff,’ Syracuse athletic director Jake Crouthamel said.

Gambling regulations have recently become stricter for members of athletic departments, Crouthamel said, mostly because of infractions at Boston College eight years ago.

In 1996, Boston College suspended 13 football players for the final three games of the season. An investigation found that at least two players on the squad had bet against their own team.

Despite such notorious gambling infractions setting a precedent against gambling, the incidents still occur.

Last summer, University of Washington head football coach Rick Neuheisel was fired after he participated in an NCAA Tournament pool with some neighborhood friends in Medina, Wash.

When reached for comment, Neuheisel referred questions about the incident to his lawyer. He has filed a wrongful firing lawsuit against UW and did not want to interfere with litigation.

‘It seems kind of bizarre that you can be fired for it,’ said Bob Sulkin, Neuheisel’s lawyer. ‘He was told it was appropriate to do it, and he wasn’t the only one who did it.’

Sulkin argued that prior to Neuheisel’s involvement in his neighborhood pool, he and the rest of the athletic department had received an e-mail from UW’s then-Compliance Director Dana Richardson. The e-mail told them that their participation in such pools would not result in any penalty, Sulkin said, as long as no one else participating in the pool was involved with UW athletics.

The NCAA has since absolved Neuheisel from penalty, but the coach is still without a job.

The dangers of gambling on the NCAA Tournament extend far beyond job loss.

‘You know how there’s gateway drugs?’ asked Jim Klein, director of the Gambling Information and Counseling Center in Utica. ‘There can be gateway gambling opportunities. People need to proceed with caution.’

Spring is a particularly dangerous time for college gamblers, Klein said, because stress adds up – from seasonal depression, tournament gambling and upcoming exams – and can lead students to make poor decisions.

‘(The tournament) is such a huge phenomenon,’ Klein said. ‘To a problem gambler, they might get in trouble because they’ll start to think it’s OK.’

Yet, Klein said, 97 percent of gamblers don’t have a gambling problem.

‘It’s not like you’re gambling your whole life away,’ said Rachel Poppe, a freshman engineering major. ‘If you lose, you lose. If you win, good job.’

And while the Student Code of Conduct threatens to punish students involved in gambling, it doesn’t specify a mandatory penalty.

‘If you were to lock up students or kick students out for gambling,’ Lewin said, ‘that’d be the end of the university.’

For most students, though, the threat of punishment won’t stop them from putting down a few bucks in pools with their friends.

‘It makes the games more interesting, because you have money on it,’ said Andy Duggan, a freshman in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. ‘As long as no one’s getting in trouble, it’s cool.’

Additional reporting by

Feature Editor Rob Howard.

Published on March 24, 2004 at 12:00 pm