SOURCE: USA Today

Continued from page 2

Five hoops scandals since 1951

Mark Andrews, chairman of the watchdog Casino Watch in Chesterfield, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis, says growing acceptance of wagering, from sports betting to poker, has created the first generation "to grow up thinking gambling is acceptable. Combine that with being in a position of influence, and they will get into trouble real quick."

Scandals involving dumping games have been scarce recently. Recall the eight Chicago White Sox players pocketing bribes to dump the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Or pro boxers taking dives in the ring.

But nearly every college betting scandal of the last 60 years involved point-shaving, such as these in basketball:

•City College of New York, 1951.
•Boston College, 1978-79.
•Tulane, 1985.
•Arizona State, 1994.
•Northwestern, 1995.

Gamblers don't just target players; they target anyone who can help them win a bet, the FBI's Heron says.

During the 2006 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, a trainer from one of the teams making the Sweet 16 received a suspicious text-mail message asking for inside information. He reported it to the FBI.

Why a trainer? "He knows who's hurt, who's healthy, who's got a bum knee," Heron says.

The only way to eradicate point-shaving, Wolfers says, would be to eliminate point-spread betting on college sports.

No plan is perfect

Even game-fixers, however, learn there's no such thing as a sure thing. In an account of the Boston College scheme published by Sports Illustrated in 1981, Hill described the strategy:

"We wanted BC to win by less than the betting line when it was favored — and to lose by more than the line when it was the underdog. So we'd always bet on the BC opponent and everything would be perfect. Right?"

Wrong. Despite three BC players on board, Hill says he won his bets on only six of the nine rigged games.

Still, Hill says he made $480,000; he says the players got a few thousand a game. Their leader, Rick Kuhn, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ended up serving 28 months. Kuhn could not be reached for comment.

The dirty secret of college sports is how easy it is for fixers to bribe student-athletes who have little or no money, Hill says, especially if the players don't think they have the size or skill to make it in the professional ranks after college.

"Everybody has a number. Everybody is corruptible. I don't care who it is," says Hill, writing a screenplay about the Boston College scam, Final Four. "It's just a matter of how much — and how much they think they can get away with.

"You offer a kid 10 large ($10,000), he's at least going to think about it."

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