Is it Legal in Your State, Too?

The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of ACUPA or Purdue University.

As of September 1, it is legal to place bets on sports, including NCAA Division I sports, in Indiana, where I live. Billboards, TV ads, and online ads entice gamblers to join in the fun at a casino or to place a bet on a smartphone app. This flurry of excitement for sports betting comes as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to strike down a federal law from 1992 that banned states from legalizing sports betting. Only four states—Delaware, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon—that already had legal betting on their books were exempt from the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992.

Indiana is not alone. Since the ruling, 15 states have legalized sports betting in some form or another (for a total of 19 states). The Action Network provides a tracker for all 50 states, if you are curious to see where each state stands on the issue.

What does this have to do with higher education policy? Well, Purdue University has NCAA Division I sports teams. And while the NCAA already prohibits student-athletes, athletics department staff, and conference office staff from engaging in sports betting, our board of trustees saw the potential for conflicts of interest if members of our university community who are not covered by the NCAA’s rule decided to use inside information for personal gain or to influence a game. This concern was shared by members of our faculty senate. So, Purdue’s board resolved to prohibit all faculty, staff, students, and independent contractors of the university from placing, accepting, or soliciting sports bets on any Purdue team, student-athlete, coach, statistical occurrence, contest, or event.

My job, in anticipation of the board’s resolution, was to research and draft a policy that could pass as soon as the board took action. In September, my University Policy Committee (UPC) saw a confidential draft of the policy and was asked to comment on it. The committee members weren’t too surprised by the draft, because the day before I sent it out, a press release went out that was picked up by local, state, and, eventually, national news. That draft was also shared with our Executive Policy Review Group (EPRG) in September. As soon as the board passed its resolution on October 10, I updated a few things in the policy, with help from legal counsel, and sent the draft back out to the UPC—this time asking committee members to share with their colleagues. They had only two days to send back comments to me so the EPRG could vote on it electronically and I could make it effective on October 18, the Friday before the next football game. It was a whirlwind month and a half, but it all seems to have worked out, and the focus now is on education.

The most common question we have received is how the policy will be enforced. Are we going to have undercover employees hang out at casinos looking for offenders? Are we going to expel a student for placing a five-dollar bet? The answer is that we will enforce it as we do any other policy that speaks to our values, ethics, and integrity, by weighing the facts and making decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Have you had to address this issue at your institution? If so, what choices did you make about the scope and breadth of the policy? If you’re curious to see what Purdue did, feel free to view the policy online.