Mark Story
Lexington Herald-Leader
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Now that we are a mere days from legalized sports wagering becoming reality in Kentucky, it seems everyone has a “betting story” to share.
Here’s mine.
When you are 19 years old, you are acutely susceptible to “are you going to put your money where your mouth is” taunts. So it was for the 19-year-old me, who saw a spirited discussion with a friend about who was likely to win a high school basketball game turn into a $20 wager straight up, on the outcome.
With mere seconds remaining in that contest, the team my money was riding on, my high school alma mater, North Hardin, was down three points. In an era before the 3-point shot, all the opponent, Fort Knox, had to do to secure the win — and cost me 20 bucks — was not foul when North Hardin inbounded the ball.
As my unhappiness over the impending loss of my money mounted, North Hardin rifled in a three-quarters-of-the-court pass. A Trojans player, Stanley Williams, got the ball and turned and put it in the basket in one quick motion and — are you kidding me? — HE GOT FOULED!
Now, as I began to taste the sweet nectar of salvation, Williams went to the foul line with a chance to send the game to overtime.
He missed.
I was literally reaching into my pocket to get the $20 bill to pay off the bet when North Hardin’s Jay Tesar, the mid-1980s Kentucky Wildcats football punter, grabbed the offensive rebound and dropped in the winning field goal a millisecond before the final buzzer.
For 19-year-old me, that exhilarating escape from certain loser to the winner of $20 could have gone one of two ways:
1.) Enticed by such an unlikely betting victory, I could have become a degenerate gambler;
2.) Or there is what happened instead. The all-but-miraculous confluence of events that occurred to save me from losing a bet I should have never made felt like a warning from the fates not to put myself in that position again.
That’s why, other than horse races, I have never bet on any individual sporting event in the 40 years since. After sports wagering becomes legal in Kentucky on Sept. 7, that won’t be changing for me.
Here’s one thing that concerns me about the new era of legal sports betting in our state. I think it puts college athletes in Kentucky, and every other state where sports wagering is now sanctioned, in a tricky spot.
I expect the gaming companies to direct much of their promotional effort at wooing college students into the betting world. Already, “gambling is rampant on college campuses nationwide,” SI.com’s Pat Forde writes.
Yet NCAA rules still forbid athletes to bet on college sports, with permanent ineligibility the punishment for betting on your own team or school.
With what figures to be widespread sports wagering by their peers going on all around them, it worries me that college athletes will get pulled into the betting, too, without thinking through the ramifications unique to their situations that arise from gambling on sports.
We are already seeing in the state of Iowa, where some prominent athletes from both Iowa and Iowa State are alleged to have bet on NCAA sports, what can happen.
“I think just with technology and the phone, kids are just so used to doing so many things and it being legal to place bets and prop bets and all those things,” Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops said. “Let’s hope we don’t have any issues with it. We have certainly talked to (the UK players) about it in depth.”
Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball coach A.W. Hamilton said he used the consequences faced by Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose for having bet on baseball as a lesson when he spoke to his team about the coming legalization of sports wagering in the commonwealth. Rose was banned from Major League Baseball in 1989 after he was accused of betting on games while serving as manager of the Reds.
“Sports wagering destroyed his career and his legacy,” Hamilton said of Rose. “He’s one of the best (baseball) players of all time and, unfortunately, he’s remembered by the mistakes he made wagering on baseball. I thought (sharing Rose’s story) was a way for (EKU players) to see how it changed his life.”
EKU athletics director Matt Roan said the coming legalization of sports wagering in Kentucky and what it means for Colonels athletes was discussed in Eastern’s all-student-athletes meeting, in compliance sessions with every EKU team and has been addressed “in all staff meetings.”
Said Roan: “I think the onus is on us, the responsibility is on us, to continue to educate, to continue to reinforce that, just because everyone else (can legally gamble on sports), it is against NCAA rules (for athletes to do so). For us, as a department … it’s really a shared responsibility to educate and monitor.”
When it comes to keeping our state’s college athletes out of legalized gambling’s potential complications, hopefully, “educating and monitoring” will be enough.
©2023 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.