Gaming panelists put heat on NCAA

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- NCAA officials urging the National Gambling Impact Study Commission to heighten awareness about widespread illegal sports betting on college campuses found themselves on the hot seat today.

Bill Saum, director of agents and gambling for the NCAA, and Daniel Nestel, assistant director of federal relations, had been invited by Commissioner Leo McCarthy of California to recommend how the study panel could help attract attention to the problem.

But instead, as the nine-member commission wound down its three-day retreat here on the campus of Pat Robertson's Regent University, the NCAA officials found themselves explaining why their organization hasn't done more on its own to address its sports wagering troubles.

Saum, whose position was created only three years ago, had urged the commission to recommend that Congress allocate funds to convene a national summit to examine sports betting's influence on youth and create gambling educational and prevention programs for college students.

The NCAA is "ready to step up to the plate and do our part in this," Saum said.

That prompted a response from Commissioner Terry Lanni, chairman of MGM Grand Inc., who suggested that the NCAA needs to demonstrate it's willing to devote more of its resources toward the problem before the commission would feel comfortable asking Congress to spend taxpayer money.

Lanni suggested that the NCAA require all of its 1,000 member schools to formulate their own education and prevention programs as a part of their membership contracts.

Commissioner John Wilhelm, international president of the Culinary Union, said NCAA universities also should play a leading role in researching sports betting on campuses.

Saum had stressed that pathological gambling rates on campuses are highest among college students. In recent years, several universities have been hit with point-shaving scandals, and he said the NCAA believes organized crime ultimately is behind widespread sports betting on campuses.

Chairwoman Kay James, who had earlier complimented Saum and Nestel for the NCAA's stepped-up efforts, suggested that the organization needs to be "more creative in its approach to the problem."

Even McCarthy said the NCAA could give itself more credibility if it showed it was willing to "break its neck" addressing the problem.

Saum acknowledged that the NCAA could be doing more, and he promised to take the suggestions back to NCAA President Cedric Dempsey.

The commissioners appeared receptive to an idea proposed by Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, to negotiate the inclusion of public-service announcements against sports betting into the NCAA's big-money network contracts.

Saum, meanwhile, urged the commission to recommend banning gambling over the Internet, a proposal the panel's Regulation, Enforcement and Internet Subcommittee favors.

College students, Saum said, are particularly susceptible to Internet wagering.

Saum also has urged the commission to recommend the Justice Department make a priority out of investigating illegal gambling.

He said the Justice Department should create a special task force to examine sports betting across the country.

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