Iowa betting scandals no surprise

Watch any sporting event broadcast in America, and you’ll be bombarded with ads from sports books urging you to bet on the game.

“Deposit your first $5, get $250 in free bets!”

“Refer a friend, get $100!”

“Cast your first $50 bet, get $500 in bonus bets!”

America has gone bonkers for online sports betting thanks to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down laws banning its existence. Now, basically anyone over the age of 21 has the opportunity to bet on a game from the comfort of their own couch. Making things easier is the fact that all of this is mobile – if you have a cellphone, tablet or laptop, you can throw money on a game as long as you’re in a state like Iowa that allows it.

The marketing around online sports betting is distrubingly pervasive. Not only do the sports books blast commercials ad nauseam during games, they infiltrate our daily lives with internet pop-ups, sponsored links, and partnerships with nationwide brands. There’s simply no escaping their reach these days. Tune into any pregame broadcast and it’s guaranteed that each talking head will share their prediction on the spread, over/under or winner.

That’s why it wasn’t particularly surprising this spring when state officials announced that student athletes at Iowa and Iowa State were being investigated for betting on sports. The NCAA prohibits athletes from such activities whether they’re of legal age or not; however, the investigation in Iowa was two-fold. Many of those accused of betting were under 21 and allegedly used fake accounts or other people to cast their bets.

The ensuing fallout has been a mess. A handful of players admitted their mistake outright, while others attempted to hide the evidence from investigators. That has led to tampering charges, suspensions and uncertainty about their future athletic careers. Some athletes have even been accused of betting on their own teams, which is viewed as a sort of double-taboo in the sports world.

None of this is particularly surprising, either. If you close your eyes and think back to when you were of college age, you may recall that logic wasn’t always at the forefront of your thinking process. With so much betting content being blasted towards college kids nowadays, it’s no shocker that some student athletes have been tempted to taste the forbidden fruit.

Still, these individuals broke the rules and should face reasonable repercussions. The NCAA has never been a reasonable governing body, though, and many people have speculated whether the accused will face lifetime bans from future participation. That would be egregious, and if those sentences are handed down, the NCAA will have some deep soul searching to do. When student athletes accused of drunken driving, assault or worse can get off the hook with simple playing time suspensions, it kind of puts harmless gambling into perspective. It would be a different story if these players were trying to manipulate outcomes of games to win bets, but nothing of the sort has been uncovered in Iowa.

It’s also worth questioning why Iowa is the epicenter of the college sports betting scandal right now. Are our oversight systems that good? Are our college athletes less sneaky than others in America? With online sports gambling legalized in 23 other states, this sort of thing has to be going on at institutions of higher learning from sea to shining sea. College athletes in Iowa aren’t any different than those in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Oregon or elsewhere.

The NCAA needs to re-evaluate its policies and lessen punishment for athletes of legal age who cast bets on sports. If they’re not betting on their own team, it really shouldn’t matter at all. Likewise, underage athletes who bet illegally shouldn’t be tarred and feathered in Town Square for their mistake. Nobody has faced a lifetime ban from the NCAA for drinking a beer at age 19 – how is this any different? If we’re going to blast gambling ads every 30 seconds, infiltrate broadcasts with predictions and make sports betting a part of our everyday lives, nobody can expect college athletes to resist the tidal wave of temptation washing down upon them.