amna: Brackets are set for the
men's and women's NCAA
tournament -- meaning March
Madness is officially here, and
with it the billions of dollars
in bets on the games.
We recently reported on sports
betting companies partnering
with universities to promote
their brands on campus, and the
threats it poses for students,
many of whom are under the legal
betting age.
But it turns out problems are
even more acute for student
athletes.
Paul Solman is back with our
latest report.
This story is a partnership with
the Shirley povich center for
sports journalism and the Howard
center for investigative
journalism, both at the
university of Maryland's Merrill
college of journalism.
Smith: So you're telling me we
can win the game and I can make
money?
>> Yeah.
Smith: No-brainer.
Paul: In 1994, decades before
the supreme court overturned a
ban on college sports betting,
Arizona state university star
point guard stevin Smith was
paid $20,000 by a gambler to
make sure his team didn't win by
more than 6 points.
Smith: I just scored 39 points
and we won the game.
Just all about winning.
As long as you winning, nobody
ever suspect nothing.
Paul: Smith was eventually
caught, however, went to prison.
His fall is featured in the
Netflix series bad sport.
His justification at the time?
Smith: We were making the school
all that money and we did not
get compensated at all.
Paul: That is, money
universities receive, mainly
from TV deals and advertisers,
not a dime of which, until
recently, went to players.
These days, star college
athletes can make serious money.
♪♪
through name, image and likeness
sponsorship deals.
But with sports betting now
legalized in many states,
student athletes no longer have
to fix games to become vilified.
For example, in the state of
Ohio, where sports gambling
became legal in January the
, university of Dayton
basketball team lost a
heartbreaker after leading big
at halftime.
Accusations, presumably by
gamblers who lost bets, promptly
followed.
"You are reading games for sure,
what a chump.
Hope you get caught."
But there was no evidence of
foul play.
At a press conference, coach
Anthony grant recoiled at the
new gambling environment.
Coach grant: It could really
change the landscape of what
college sports is all about.
And when we have people that
make it about themselves and
attack kids because of their own
agenda, it sickens me.
Paul: The Ohio state gambling
regulator has now threatened to
ban anyone who attacks athletes
online.
Trever: Irrespective of
gambling, the pressure on these
kids to perform is immense.
Paul: Trever Wright helps run
rules compliance at the nearby
university of Cincinnati.
Trever: I'm really worried
that now, because it's legal in
Ohio and students of the
university and general public,
you know, are gambling on the
university of Cincinnati
basketball and football games
and other events, that now
they're publicly going to come
out via social media or just in
the crowd in general and say,
you cost me money.
And what does that do to the
mental health of that athlete?
Paul: Now the NCAA prohibits its
athletes from betting and warns
athletes about gambling during
and after their college careers.
Clint: It's really challenging
just to keep up with.
Paul: The NCAA compliance chief.
Clint: From a state by state
level, they're kind of
legalizing the activity and then
after the fact, trying to adjust
to that and put in place a lot
more regulation and integrity
efforts.
Our primary concerns are
twofold.
One would be the health and
well-being of our student
athletes and then second fold
, would be the integrity of our
competitions.
Paul: And there's actually
another concern, which is why
the NCAA helps pay for former
English pro rugby player mark
potter to scare student-athletes
straight by confessing his
story, including his near
suicide.
Mark: I drove down the road, sat
on a train station bridge and
tried to psych myself up to jump
off in front of one.
Paul: Because potter was a
compulsive gambler, as some 6%
of all gamblers but,.
-- Templars become.
At an even much higher rate are
college-age gamblers, first time
away from home, maybe drinking
too much.
And athletes are several times
more likely still to become
addicted, says potter.
For lots of reasons.
Mark: Whether you feel like you
have more sporting knowledge,
whether you are using the
competitive drivers and your
almost will to win to try and
succeed at it.
Whether you are trying to
replicate what you're not
getting out of your sport.
Paul: Potter shared his own
story recently at the university
of Cincinnati.
: Mark -- mark: I got injured.
And that is honestly one of the
worst things that ever happened
to me.
Paul: In just his second year as
a rugby pro, at 19, potter
sustained a series of injuries
that kept him off the field.
Hurt, bored, gambling became his
way to replace the competitive
high.
Within a few short years --
mark: I was 24 and I was 70
grand in debt.
I had no job at the end of the
year, no prospect of another
contract and I suddenly got an
Irish girl pregnant who lived in
a different country.
Paul: He moved to Ireland,
started a family, and vowed the
betting was behind him.
But it wasn't.
Mark: It started to become more
and more unmanageable.
I had to hide it from her.
I used to have a house phone,
and I used to pull the cord
slightly out of the wall before
I went to practice because I
didn't want people ringing her
asking her for money when I
wasn't there and I couldn't
answer it.
Paul: The money for household
finances was going toward bets,
until one day --
mark: Repo man came to our house
and gave us an eviction notice,
I hadn't paid our mortgage for
months.
And she didn't know.
I owed $6,000 of a mortgage and
I had $42 in my bank accounts.
Paul: The story becomes ever
more harrowing.
Potter was arrested, ostracized,
but even that didn't deter him.
Mark: I went into my town and I
sold my wife's engagement ring
and all of my kids toys for
$500.
I had to.
I literally couldn't stop myself
from doing it.
And I did it fully assuming I
was going to win the money to
pay it back.
Paul: Okay, enough.
You get it by now.
As did the student athletes,
though we weren't allowed to
shoot interviews, or show their
faces.
But off camera, they were blown
away, especially with pawning
the kids' toys.
Potter eventually reconciled
with his family.
After years of rehab, this is
his ongoing therapy.
Mark: Ultimately my sports
career was a failed one, and it
was a failed one because of what
was going on in the background.
So the next best thing from that
is to be able to provide
information that other athletes
don't have to go down the same
route.
Paul: But why is a former
English rugby star focusing on
America?
Paul: It's a country that's 320
million people, 50 states, with
no regulation or different
regulation.
Paul: Paul buck founded the firm
potter works for.
Paul: It feels like this is a
country where we should be
spending most of our time from a
prevention point of view,
because it feels like we're
where we're needed the most.
Paul: The company promotes
education through lived
experience, like buck's, once a
banker and such a problem
gambler himself, he actually
tried to commit suicide.
Paul: On that day in December
2011, I felt that the world
would be a better place without
me, you know?
Be that my wife, be that my
kids, be that my employer, be
that my friends.
That's how low a place it can
take you if gambling does get
hold of you.
Paul: Via buck's firm, potter
was brought to Cincinnati not
just by the NCAA, but by
European gambling giant entain.
So you're a gambling company
that's doing education.
Are you just protecting
yourself?
Protecting your image?
Martin: No.
We're doing education to achieve
long term sustainability of
these markets.
So we're protecting the
industry, that is right.
But we're also protecting
customers, our customers, the
industry wide customers as well
as the public at large.
Paul: By trying to scare the
most vulnerable among us
straight.
Because in a free fall free
market, college kids need all
the protection they can get.
For "The pbs newshour," Paul
Solman in Cincinnati.