The Chronicle of Higher Education Tuesday

The Chronicle of Higher Education Tuesday, March 28, 2000

U. of Michigan Study Documents Gambling Among College Referees

By WELCH SUGGS

Gambling, in one form or another, is a common diversion for most college referees, according to a study being released this week by the University of Michigan's athletics department.

More than 84 percent of the 640 officials who responded to the survey said they had participated in some form of wagering since beginning their careers as referees. Types of gambling included casino games, buying lottery tickets, and playing slot machines. Nearly 40 percent of all respondents also admitted placing bets on a sporting event, and more than a fifth said they had bet on the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament. Fourteen referees admitted betting on sports with a bookie.

No referees admitted providing inside information or betting on games at which they officiated. But two admitted that their awareness of the point spread on a particular game affected the way they called it, two reported being asked to fix a game, and 12 said they were aware of other referees who "did not call games fairly because of gambling reasons."

Statistics like those raise the specter of problem gambling among college referees, according to the authors, and could lead to questions about the integrity of the N.C.A.A.'s highly visible contests. Indeed, the study found that 3.2 percent of respondents met commonly accepted criteria for "problem" or "pathological" gambling, which is consistent with trends noted in other studies of general populations.

"I don't want [the study] to be an indictment of officials," said Derrick L. Gragg, who conducted the study with Ann G. Vollano. "I think it's just a microcosm of society itself. Just like with student-athletes, 84.4 percent of sports officials participate in some form of gambling -- that's pretty much way it is across the board in the United States."

Mr. Gragg is the assistant athletics director for N.C.A.A. rules compliance at Michigan, and Ms. Vollano is the assistant compliance director at the university. Last year, Ms. Vollano co-wrote a report on gambling among college athletes that stated that 72 percent of them had participated in some form of wagering since entering college. (See a story from The Chronicle, January 22, 1999.)

Like the study on athletes, the report on referees did not distinguish between legal and illegal betting, although betting on sports is legal only in Nevada. Nor did the new study distinguish between casual betting, such as participating in a $5 office pool on the N.C.A.A. men's basketball tournament, and serious betting, like a $100 bet on the championship game.

However, 37 percent of bettors said the largest amount they had wagered in a single day was from $1 to $20, 20 percent said their highest bet was from $20 to $50, and another 20 percent said they had bet from $50 to $100. A total of 80 respondents said they had bet more than $100 in a single day.

Craig Thompson, chairman of the N.C.A.A. men's basketball committee, said the study's findings justified the association's efforts to combat gambling in recent years. The N.C.A.A. is lobbying Congress to pass a bill that would outlaw all betting on collegiate and amateur sports.

"Some of these statistics are startling, but that's why the N.C.A.A. has stepped up its efforts to educate and inform the public about the issue in general," said Mr. Thompson, the commissioner of the Mountain West Conference. "The 14 officials who have placed bets with bookies, and most certainly the two that have been approached -- that's precisely what we have tried to get at with men's basketball, by increasing education, and we're all on alert."

The N.C.A.A. conducted random background checks on 50 basketball referees this season, but Mr. Thompson said the checks had not, to his knowledge, turned up any problems or questions.

Mr. Gragg said that Michigan's athletics department would publish the complete contents of the study later this week on its Web site.

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