https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...-tampering

Dekkers could and probably will lose all eligibility, and Uwazurike might not ever play another down in the NFL. Too bad for them they weren't Northwestern students, if they'd gone there the coaches would get blamed for failure to monitor student athlete gambling activities and the kids would get free counseling and a cookie.

update on 3/1/24:

Charges getting dropped against 4 of the kids.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...e-athletes

Yeah, Dekkers is toast. Honestly the ease at which gambling can be accomplished by 18-year-olds and the unvarnished promotion of it to them makes this seem like it should be much more commonplace. I assume it probably is.

I would think college athletes would have enough sense about gambling itself... but gambling on your own school's games???

That's Pete Rose stupidity right there.

QB Dekkers and a soph (Sauser) charged with underage gambling; both bet around $3,000 total, both bet on ISU sports, including football.

Recently graduated DL (Uwarzurike) placed over $21,000 worth of bets at ISU, including on ISU FB games. He is currently suspended indefinitely from the NFL for placing wagers involving his own team.

And Big 12 champ wrestler Paniro Johnson placed over $45,000 worth of underage bets during his freshman year, including about 25 on ISU sporting events

(08-02-2023 06:38 AM)SlyFox Wrote:  Yeah, Dekkers is toast. Honestly the ease at which gambling can be accomplished by 18-year-olds and the unvarnished promotion of it to them makes this seem like it should be much more commonplace. I assume it probably is.

Dekkers bet over $3,000, but the average was about $7.50 a bet. We aren't talking about big time money here.

(08-02-2023 06:57 AM)goofus Wrote:  QB Dekkers and a soph (Sauser) charged with underage gambling; both bet around $3,000 total, both bet on ISU sports, including football.

Recently graduated DL (Uwarzurike) placed over $21,000 worth of bets at ISU, including on ISU FB games. He is currently suspended indefinitely from the NFL for placing wagers involving his own team.

And Big 12 champ wrestler Paniro Johnson placed over $45,000 worth of underage bets during his freshman year, including about 25 on ISU sporting events

Seems like just from the numbers that Dekkers stupidly wanted to gamble just like other college kids and got caught as his average bet was like 9 bucks. Obviously stupid and a no no.

Betting $45,000 in year as an 18 year old sounds like a gambling problem to me and my guess is that his betting behavior may have been the thing that originally tipped off authorities as depending on the betting patter and amounts it may have raised red flags.

ESPN just said dude placed 363 bets totaling about $2800. My UC math tells me that's about $8 per bet.

I mean, if they're not fixing games... is this a big deal?

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/stor...tting-case

Sounds like the players have good attorneys. Not that it helps with eligibility issues, but may with criminal.

(08-02-2023 05:49 PM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  ESPN just said dude placed 363 bets totaling about $2800. My UC math tells me that's about $8 per bet.

I mean, if they're not fixing games... is this a big deal?

I don't know, would you consider it a big deal if Cincinnati players were betting on their own team, regardless of amount? We all know that college kids are stupid, but this sort of stupid needs to be cut out VERY publicly. It's not a big step going from $8 per bet to $18, then $38, then hey I need a ring for my girl so i'm betting $5k on that big rivalry game this weekend, it's just one game and i can drop a few passes and nobody will notice...

It could be even worse for people in individual sports. The WR or QB can have a big impact on a football game, but the wrestler in a wrestling match controls it all. How hard would it be for him to impact his own match when/if he gets into trouble with the wrong sorts of people, or if he just gets greedy and wants some of that NIL and who would notice anyway it's just wrestling etc etc etc...

Gambling is for guys like us who are done with sports. 99% of us wouldn't need someone to tell us this.

(02-28-2024 02:36 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(08-02-2023 05:49 PM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  ESPN just said dude placed 363 bets totaling about $2800. My UC math tells me that's about $8 per bet.

I mean, if they're not fixing games... is this a big deal?

I don't know, would you consider it a big deal if Cincinnati players were betting on their own team, regardless of amount? We all know that college kids are stupid, but this sort of stupid needs to be cut out VERY publicly. It's not a big step going from $8 per bet to $18, then $38, then hey I need a ring for my girl so i'm betting $5k on that big rivalry game this weekend, it's just one game and i can drop a few passes and nobody will notice...

It could be even worse for people in individual sports. The WR or QB can have a big impact on a football game, but the wrestler in a wrestling match controls it all. How hard would it be for him to impact his own match when/if he gets into trouble with the wrong sorts of people, or if he just gets greedy and wants some of that NIL and who would notice anyway it's just wrestling etc etc etc...

Gambling is for guys like us who are done with sports. 99% of us wouldn't need someone to tell us this.

Maybe we didn't need to be told because we grew up 20 or 40 years ago. In the late 80s, we all watched Pete Rose's fall from grace and we all watched Field of Dreams tell us about Shoeless Joe. If you grew up in the 60s, you heard about Connie Hawkins or Pete Hornung.

I really do think these kids aren't told that it's illegal. (*edit - Or at least that it's stressed less than telling them to be in their dorm before curfew or not to drink underage). Consider: there hasn't been a major gambling scandal since Pete Rose.


Additionally, gambling is much more widespread and normalized today. Just like social media, there is social pressure to participate, and companies hire PhD psychologists to make it as addictive as possible and to expand the breadth of activities that you use it for.


I have my (college) students write a business plan to start a business from scratch. 5-10 years ago, 1/4-1/2 of them would do alcohol-related businesses (bars, clubs, or breweries). Last semester, over 1/3 of them picked a gambling-related business.

(02-28-2024 02:24 PM)bullet Wrote:  https://www.espn.com/college-sports/stor...tting-case

Sounds like the players have good attorneys. Not that it helps with eligibility issues, but may with criminal.

It sounds like they are charged with identity theft, rather than underage gambling.

The motion notes another case where two brothers had used their Dad's account to gamble, and hadn't been charged with identity theft. When the Iowa State case broke it was suggested that some parents had enabled students gambling by setting up accounts in the parent's name and letting Junior use the account.

Probably not all parents would "let" their children use their account, so maybe they had to figure out another way.

Charges getting dropped?

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...e-athletes

Of course, all the damage has been done. I don't have much sympathy for the kids in this case, but I must admit that I'm glad to see that the prosecutor agreed that the investigator went too far and is dropping the charges against 4 of them.

(03-01-2024 03:46 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  Charges getting dropped?

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...e-athletes

Of course, all the damage has been done. I don't have much sympathy for the kids in this case, but I must admit that I'm glad to see that the prosecutor agreed that the investigator went too far and is dropping the charges against 4 of them.

Well the prosecutor effectively admitted all his evidence would be thrown out because it was illegally obtained and he would have no case.