NCAA Study Highlights Ineffectiveness of Gambling Bans

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is no stranger to promoting questionable stances, particularly regarding sports betting and gambling policies. Recent research conducted by the NCAA has weakened its own arguments, particularly concerning one of its most vocal positions: online gambling restrictions in the United States.

In a recent report from the NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS), released on October 1, 2024, the association acknowledged that its prohibitions on gambling have done little to stop violations of its bylaws by athletic workers. The committee’s findings were clear: prohibitions have not curbed unwanted gambling behaviors, particularly among individuals within the NCAA’s purview.

In plain terms, the CSMAS conceded that people working within collegiate sports are still gambling in ways that violate the association’s rules, and the NCAA has little ability to effectively stop this. While the NCAA provided few details on how CSMAS arrived at these conclusions, the message was unambiguous: gambling restrictions have not worked.

NCAA's Contradictory Stance on Betting

What makes the CSMAS findings even more perplexing is the continued insistence of NCAA President Charlie Baker on calling for state-level regulations to carve out individual collegiate athlete prop bets from sports wagering systems. This stance is at odds with the CSMAS report’s key finding—that gambling restrictions don’t effectively curtail the behavior, at least among those already within the NCAA ecosystem.

The NCAA’s long-standing narrative, which claims that protecting athlete welfare is at the heart of its policies, appears to be falling apart. Rather than acknowledging the findings of its own committee, the association seems set to continue pushing a story that aligns with its interests, not necessarily with the facts.

The NCAA’s findings also touch on a larger issue: the regulation—or lack thereof—of online gambling in the United States. The CSMAS report essentially confirms what many experts have already said about online casino play. Keeping online gambling unregulated not only fails to prevent people from participating in these activities but might also make the situation worse.

Take, for example, the American Gaming Association’s report that U.S. residents wagered over $338 billion on unregulated online casino websites in 2023. These figures illustrate the scale of the issue and suggest that a failure to regulate online gambling effectively isn’t stopping it but rather allowing it to thrive in the shadows.

Unregulated Gambling’s Impact on Individuals and States

Unregulated online gambling poses significant risks, both to individuals and state economies. Three primary concerns emerge:

1. Consumer Protection: Unregulated gambling websites often operate with poor safeguards for player security, leading to potential exploitation. This includes issues like delayed or denied payouts, unfair gaming practices, and insufficient privacy protections.
2. Public Revenue: By not regulating online casinos, states are missing out on potential tax revenue that could be used to fund public services. Furthermore, the financial burden of problem gambling in these states goes unaddressed.
3. Vulnerabilities: Problem gambling tends to flourish on unregulated platforms, where there are fewer, if any, mechanisms to help people manage their gambling behavior. This includes a lack of self-exclusion options, deposit limits, or time constraints. Furthermore, weak age verification processes mean that minors could easily access these platforms, exacerbating the problem.

Regulatory Frameworks Without Enforcement Are Futile

One of the most important takeaways from the CSMAS report is that even where regulations exist, without enforcement, they are meaningless. This mirrors issues in broader online gambling regulation. Merely enacting laws to regulate online casinos without adequate oversight and enforcement mechanisms will not curb the problem. The NCAA itself is an example of this: while rules are in place to restrict gambling, the association lacks real authority to enforce them, leaving the responsibility to individual colleges and universities, which have varying degrees of commitment to enforcement.

This point is reinforced by the fact that some states with online gambling regulations have seen success with minimal enforcement efforts. Fourteen U.S. jurisdictions have managed to stop offshore online casino operator Harp Media from accepting plays within their borders simply by issuing cease-and-desist letters. This shows that enforcement, even at a low level, can yield results.

Conclusion

The latest findings from the NCAA’s own research are a stark reminder of the ineffectiveness of gambling prohibitions, particularly when not supported by strong enforcement. They also highlight the broader implications for online gambling in the U.S., underscoring the need for regulation that not only exists on paper but is actively enforced. As the CSMAS report suggests, both for the NCAA and for state governments, regulating gambling without enforcement is an exercise in futility. The question now is whether lawmakers will heed this message or continue to allow unregulated online gambling to flourish unchecked.