{"id":14262,"date":"2025-03-04T11:30:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T11:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=14262"},"modified":"2025-03-04T11:30:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T11:30:39","slug":"the-growing-shadow-of-gambling-and-cheating-in-college-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/the-growing-shadow-of-gambling-and-cheating-in-college-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"The Growing Shadow of Gambling and Cheating in College Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/ncaa-ball-being-held-by-a-referee.jpg\" alt=\"NCAA Ball being held by a referee\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-14263\" title=\"The Growing Shadow of Gambling and Cheating in College Basketball\" \/><strong>Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>College basketball players from several U.S. schools are in the spotlight for gambling and alleged game-fixing. <\/li>\n<li>Despite the NCAA\u2019s efforts to guarantee integrity, sports betting has become an unavoidable part of the landscape.\t<\/li>\n<li>With legalized gambling now widely accessible across the U.S., the need for a solution is more burning than ever.\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The hot topic of gambling, game-fixing, and cheating in sports has been in the spotlight for a while now. <\/p>\n<p>The <strong>disturbing front-page stories of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/basketball\/college\">college basketball<\/a> players from Fresno State, Iowa, Iowa State, and New Orleans<\/strong> are no news to anyone. What these players have in common is the fact that they were all scrutinized for their involvement in gambling or potential game-fixing.<\/p>\n<h2>Is Cheating Inevitable in College Sports?<\/h2>\n<p>When acknowledging that betting has become a ubiquitous part of society, covering everything from dice and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/horse-racing\">horse racing<\/a> to camel races and underground fighting, some level of cheating seems inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the schools already mentioned earlier, <strong>games involving Temple, North Carolina A&#038;T, Eastern Michigan, and Mississippi Valley State have also been flagged<\/strong> for what has been described as \u201c<em>unusual wagering activity<\/em>\u201d by an ESPN monitoring site.<\/p>\n<p>At Fresno State, guard <strong>Jalen Weaver<\/strong> admitted to ESPN that he placed a wager on his own performance in a December 31 matchup against New Mexico. <\/p>\n<p>Betting through the fantasy platform <strong>Sleeper<\/strong>, which openly advertises on platforms like Google Play, he risked $50 on the assumption he would score more than 11 points. <\/p>\n<p>He finished with 13 in a 103-89 loss. <\/p>\n<h2>\u201cThe NCAA Takes Sports Betting Very Seriously\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Authorities, the NCAA, and federal investigators are all taking a closer look at this growing problem.  The organization declared in a statement,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The NCAA takes sports betting very seriously and is committed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/ohio-and-maryland-prohibit-prop-bets-on-college-players\/\">protection of student-athlete well-being<\/a> and the integrity of competition<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Unfortunately, the Chicago Sun Times\u2019 <strong>Rick Telander<\/strong> believes the world of sports is practically begging fans to gamble. <\/p>\n<p>With betting platforms accessible everywhere you look, flashing odds in real-time, and no less than 39 states giving the green light to sports betting, anyone can place a wager at any moment. <\/p>\n<p>Plus, betting is woven into sports culture. Fixing games is no news to anyone, dating back decades. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/the-big-fix\">1951 point-shaving scandal at Madison Square Garden<\/a> involved multiple teams, while mobster Henry Hill orchestrated Boston College\u2019s infamous scheme in 1978. Northwestern had its own scandal in the mid-90s, with both football and basketball players implicated.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KwRG1_NRjko?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The example of Arizona State\u2019s <strong>Stevin \u201c<em>Hedake<\/em>\u201d Smith<\/strong> is also mindblowing. <\/p>\n<p>In 1994, <strong>Smith single-handedly manipulated a game against Oregon State<\/strong> by playing just badly enough on defense to keep the margin within the fixers\u2019 desired spread despite dropping 39 points and tying a conference record for three-pointers.<\/p>\n<p>As the NCAA Tournament draws near, millions of Americans will fill out brackets, caught up in the thrill. The authorities are busy making sure game-fixing is kept at an all-time low this time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary: College basketball players from several U.S. schools are in the spotlight for gambling and alleged game-fixing. Despite the NCAA\u2019s efforts to guarantee integrity, sports betting has become an unavoidable part of the landscape. With legalized gambling now widely accessible across the U.S., the need for a solution is more burning than ever. The hot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Growing Shadow of Gambling and Cheating in College Basketball<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As legalized sports betting keeps skyrocketing across the U.S., college basketball is facing the rising threat of players engaging in gambling, game-fixing, and cheating.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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