“Online Betting: Can the NCAA Maintain Its Integrity?”

The days of quaint phenomena such as betting in office pools are over now that online betting is an option. With the amount of money that’s at stake, is it at all possible for players of college basketball to remain pure and unmanipulated? It’s a real problem, and one the NCAA is growing increasingly troubled by.

According to USA Today, gamblers will place online bets of between $1 billion and $1.3 billion on the NCAA Tournament this year. Factor this data in with another statistic – 12 million people gambled online in 2003, according to the American Gaming Association – and it quickly becomes clear that the NCAA is sailing on uncharted and potentially dangerous waters. Will players succumb to blackmail or bribery in order to manipulate the outcome of the game? How will it be possible to maintain the integrity of the sport? Will there be underlying and ongoing doubts and suspicions as to whether games have been fixed?

Unfortunately, there is very little that the NCAA can do about the situation, and the federal government also has its hands tied; online gambling sites are registered outside U.S. jurisdiction in countries where they’re legal. The federal Wire Act of 1961, a law which was written to stop people from using phone lines to place bets, is completely useless when it comes to internet gambling. By moving currency via cell phones, computers and PDAs, people don’t even need cash, checks or credit cards to place bets; betting has become virtually paper-trail free. Bettors can place their online bets before and during games, and online gaming sites are making it easier to do so all the time.

The Offshore Gaming Association suggests that bettors do their best to protect themselves; in general, that means bettors need to be smart and savvy and do their research. One specific piece of advice they offer bettors is to be as learned as they can be about the tournament games, seeing where exactly they will be played – close to home or close to the opposition – and checking out the teams’ previous performances. While they – the Offshore Gaming Association – do their best to monitor the industry, they cannot offer guarantees as far as being able to protect consumers. Thus, they encourage everyone to be as well-informed as they can be.