With most of humanity gambling on everything from the bounce of Ping-Pong balls to anything that rolls, flies, moves or fights — including dice, horses, dogs, pigeons, camels, roosters and flat-faced MMA creatures — well, cheating has to happen.
And it has in college basketball.
You might not have paid much attention (too busy with odds?), but players at Fresno State, Iowa, Iowa State and New Orleans have come under suspicion for gambling or fixing games in the last year or so.
Games involving Temple, North Carolina A&T, Eastern Michigan and Mississippi Valley State also have been flagged for what has been called ‘‘unusual wagering activity’’ by an ESPN watchdog site.
At Fresno State, guard Jalen Weaver told ESPN he bet on how many points he would score in the Bulldogs’ game Dec. 31 against New Mexico. He said he bet $50 on the fantasy site Sleeper (‘‘Get it on Google Play,’’ the site blares), gambling he would score more than 11 points. And he did, finishing with 13 in his team’s 103-89 loss.
There’s more to all of this, of course, and authorities, the NCAA and federal agents are looking into it. The NCAA, naturally, is indignant.
‘‘The NCAA takes sports betting very seriously and is committed to the protection of student-athlete well-being and the integrity of competition,’’ it said in a statement.
Well, that’s great because Americans are encouraged to gamble on college sports, with gambling sites advertised everywhere, bets allowed every second of every day and sports gambling now legal in 39 states. Of course, the NCAA claims it’s out to help its student-athletes because that’s what it always does. Even if it’s the games that bring in millions of dollars to the organization that it really cares about
It’s weird when you think that even good-hearted Illinois encourages its citizens, mostly the poor and dreaming, to bet on its state lottery: Powerball, Lucky Day Lotto, Mega Millions, Pick 3 Plus Fireball, etc. This is just the most basic gambling there can be, guessing on numbers. Gambling generally was shunned in the U.S. until New Hampshire started the first state lottery in 1963. Other states soon joined the party.
Now sports betting is so legal that you can do it at arenas and fields of play, online, on your phone, instantly and always. So there’s nothing new about athletes fixing games, trying to make a buck off the public, the point spread, a sucker bet.
There was a huge point-fixing scandal in 1951 centered on Madison Square Garden and four New York basketball teams but also involving Toledo, Bradley and Kentucky. In 1978, Boston College had a point-fixing nightmare that was orchestrated by mobster Henry Hill, the creep played by Ray Liotta in the 1990 movie ‘‘Goodfellas.’’
More recently and locally, there was the Northwestern point-shaving debacle, in which the basketball and football teams fixed games in 1994-95. I’ll never forget video of running back Dennis Lundy fumbling the football as he was approaching the goal line against Iowa or basketball guard Dion Lee admitting he changed his game for money.
Of his point-shaving, Lee said: ‘‘It was wrong, and I look back on it and I regret it. But at the time, I was filled with so much stress and so much anxiety, I just wasn’t thinking.’’
Also in 1994, Arizona State guard Stevin ‘‘Hedake’’ Smith took point-shaving to a new height — or depth. In a game against Oregon State, in which the Sun Devils were favored by 15, Smith scored 39 points, tied a conference record with 10 three-pointers and still kept the fixers happy by making sure Arizona State won by only six points. How did he do it? By being a step slow on defense, a lazy hand away from altering shots.
I don’t gamble. There are still oddball people like me who don’t feel as good about winning as they feel horrible about losing. But do what you do. Virtue and vice are interchangeable these days. What is a hedge-fund genius but a gambler? Farmers gamble every season on crop futures. Insurance companies base their entire existence on actuarial bets.
The NCAA Tournament is coming soon. The Big Dance beckons. And every God-fearing American will fill out a bracket. Right? Yes, sir.
Just be sure your bracket guys aren’t on the take. It’s one more gamble, you know.