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It didn’t take long for sports betting to become a multi-billion dollar industry after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a 1992 law that barred state-authorized sports gambling.
The high court’s ruling came in 2018. Sports betting became legal in Indiana the following year and now the American Gaming Association lists 39 states, plus the District of Columbia, where such wagering is permitted.
In a nod to that social trend, the NCAA’s Division I Council announced a proposal in June that, if adopted in October, would change sports betting rules to permit student-athletes and staff members to bet on professional sports.
The organization’s Divisions II and III would also need to approve the move before any change could take effect. Betting on college sports by student-athletes would not be allowed under the NCAA proposal.
Philip Sicuso, a partner at Bose McKinney & Evans, said he is not surprised that it took some time before the NCAA rolled out its sports betting proposal.
“The NCAA has always been slow to change on some things like this,” Sicuso said.
Sicuso chairs the firm’s Gaming Group and served as general counsel for the Indiana Gaming Commission during the administration of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
He noted there are so many states now where sports betting is legal in some form.
That widespread acceptance, plus the gambling regulations and protections put in place across the country, likely contributed to the NCAA shift in policy, Sicuso said.
When the new proposal was announced in June, NCAA leaders acknowledged that times, and laws, had changed.
“NCAA rules prohibiting sports betting at all levels were written and adopted at a time when sports gambling was largely illegal nationwide,” said Josh Whitman, athletics director at Illinois and chair of the council. “As betting on sports has become more widely accepted across the country, Division I members have determined that further discussion of these sports betting rules is warranted, particularly as it relates to the potential distinctions between betting on professional versus collegiate sports. Throughout our discussions, the council has remained focused on student-athlete wellness and educating student-athletes about the risks and potentially harmful impacts of betting.”
Josh Schaub, a sports and business law attorney with Gutwein Law, acknowledged that the NCAA’s move comes during an era when the country is treating college athletes as adults.
But Schaub cautioned that he feels the new proposal comes with great risks and could provide temptations for some student-athletes to bet on college sports.
He said he also had questions about how the NCAA intended to enforce its new sports betting rules, if they’re implemented,
“If it goes forward, the NCAA is going to have to roll out all kinds of betting education programs,” Schaub said.
Popularity of sports betting
After the Supreme Court issued its 2018 opinion, sports gambling has quickly become embraced in most states.
That includes Indiana, where sports betting generated a handle (the amount of money wagered by bettors) of more than $351 million in June at the state’s licensed casinos, according to the Indiana Gaming Commission.
Year-to-date, that statewide handle stands at more than $5.5 billion.
For the month of May, Americans wagered $12.1 billion on sports, up 15.5 percent year-over-year, based on AGA data.
The popularity of sports betting extends to student-athletes.
The NCAA released a survey in January of the gambling behaviors of more than 20,000 student-athletes, the fifth such NCAA study on the topic since 2004 but the first since the 2018 Supreme Court ruling allowed states to legally operate sportsbooks.
In its survey, the NCAA reported that In 2016, even though sports betting was only legal in any form in a few states, 24% of student-athletes on men’s teams reported violating NCAA bylaws within the previous year by betting on sports (legally or illegally) one or more times for money.
By the end of 2024, 22% of NCAA men reported betting (legally or illegally) on sports at least once in the prior 12 months.
About 5% of NCAA women’s sport participants in both 2016 and 2024 reported betting on sports at least once in the prior year.
Jarrod Loadholt is partner in Ice Miller’s Government Affairs & Regulatory Law Group. He said he was not surprised by the NCAA’s sports gambling proposal, given the pervasive sports gambling apps people can use on their phones or the advertising on display during most televised sporting events on ESPN and other channels.
“Honestly, it’s kind of like the NCAA is seeing the writing on the wall,” Loadholt said.
Loadholt said he thought the NCAA’s proposal represented the organization moving its sports betting rules in line with a cultural shift on sports betting.
“It looks like they put a lot of thought into this,” Loadholt said.
What NCAA proposal allows
In addition to maintaining its ban on betting on college sports, the NCAA proposal also would prohibit advertising and sponsorships associated with betting for NCAA championships.
According to the organization, NCAA members also have continually maintained that any betting by a student-athlete on his or her own team or own sport in college should continue to result in a permanent loss of any remaining collegiate eligibility.
In 2023, Division I changed the reinstatement guidelines for student-athletes who participate in sports betting on professional sports to focus on harm reduction for problematic betting behaviors.
Christina Gray, executive director for the Indiana Council on Problem Gambling, said one interesting feature of the NCAA’s sports betting proposal is that most states, including Indiana, require sports bettors to be 21 years old for online and in-person betting at licensed sportsbooks and facilities.
“The majority of them would not be able to (legally) gamble,” Gray said of NCAA student-athletes.
The minimum age to participate in daily fantasy sports betting in Indiana is 18.
The Indiana council does not take a stand for or against gambling, but advocates for those who have a problem.
Gray said she has concerns about how the NCAA will deal with student-athletes that have gambling problems.
She said it’s not clear to her what sort of help the NCAA will provide those student-athletes and what the consequences will be if they violate a new policy.
In announcing the proposal in June, Deena Casiero, the NCAA’s chief medical officer, said deregulating professional sports betting might provide schools an additional opportunity to implement harm-reduction strategies, which she argued can be more effective and have long-term benefits not seen with abstinence-only approaches.
Casiero said that by meeting student-athletes where they are, “schools may be more effective at preventing, identifying and supporting student-athletes with problematic gambling behaviors.”
The NCAA also touted its outreach efforts to more than 100,000 student-athletes, coaches and administrators through the organization’s education efforts with EPIC Global Solutions, and the launch of an e-learning module to educate student-athletes on problem gambling harms and the integrity risks associated with sports betting.
Todd Shumaker, a partner with Church Church Hittle + Antrim, said there was always a chance the proposal could not be approved, with each NCAA division having its own philosophy on how to handle student-athlete issues.
Still, Shumaker said that by the time a proposal like this one reaches a vote, NCAA staff and committee members have usually done extensive research and pored over substantial data.
He said the conversation about allowing betting on professional sports had been going on for a while.
“This is one that’s been circling around enough,” Shumaker said.
He also noted that the NCAA has partnered with the National Council on Problem Gambling to try to promote healthier versions of gambling among student-athletes.•
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