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Point-shaving remains a concern in college athletics
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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2007-05-08-point-shaving-cover_N.htm?csp=34
Point-shaving remains a concern in college athletics
Posted '5/9/2007 4:06 PM
By Andy Morrison, The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade
Toledo's Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr., seen here carrying the ball during a 2004 game, had faced federal charges of participating in a bribery scheme to influence games. Last month, however, the criminal complaint against the running back was dropped.
ARIZONA STATE'S SCANDAL
The FBI cites the point-shaving investigation at Arizona State as a good example of how the illegal scam typically works.
During the 1993-94 season, according to the FBI website, Stevin "Hedake" Smith, star of the Sun Devils men's basketball team, conspired with teammate Isaac Burton and student/campus bookie Benny Silman to shave points. Mob associates from two crime families in Chicago and New Jersey bankrolled the scheme.
Silman told ESPN's Outside the Lines in 2002 that Smith refused to throw games but was willing to shave points. Sports bookmakers in Las Vegas nonetheless noticed unusually heavy betting action on the four games from Jan. 28-March 5, 1994, and tipped off law enforcement, says Matt Heron, chief of the organized crime section at FBI headquarters in Washington.
The players and Silman eventually confessed to sports bribery and served prison terms of two months to four years.
Smith could not be reached for comment. But during an interview with the CBS Evening News in 2006, he admitted: "I made a hell of a mistake that cost me my NBA career."
A game-by-game breakdown of how the players tried to beat the elusive point spread:
Jan. 28, 1994:The fixers pick Oregon State as the first game. It works. The Sun Devils were favored by 15 points and won by six. Smith scored a career-high 39 points and tied a Pacific 10 record with 10 three-pointers and, according to Smith in that Outside the Lines interview on ESPN, collected $20,000 for making sure his team didn't cover the spread.
"The only illegal thing I did was accept the money" Smith said in the interview. "As far as with the ball, when I had my uniform on, I gave 110%."
Jan. 30, 1994:The fixers get back to business against Oregon. Arizona State was favored by 11 1/2 points and won again by six. Smith scored 13 points.
Feb. 19, 1994:Against Southern California, Arizona State was favored by 9 points. They lost by 12. The fixers won big. But the scheme is unraveling. Too many mobsters want in; too many gamblers know too much.
March 5, 1994:The scam falls apart against the University of Washington. Arizona State was favored by 15 points. But gamblers bet nearly $1 million on a game that typically generates $50,000. With almost all the money coming in for the underdog, the betting line dropped to 3 points. Some suspicious Las Vegas casinos took the game "off the board," refusing to accept bets. Arizona State won by 18 points. Silman lost all his money, then took a beating from a 600-pound mob associate nicknamed "Big Red."
Then, alerted by Las Vegas bookmakers, the FBI in Phoenix opened its case and eventually nets the players and their co-conspirators around the USA.
Silman could not be reached for comment. But he told ESPN in 2002 that although the point-shaving was "easy" to pull off, it has been impossible to live down. "I'm branded for the rest of my life whether I like it or not."
--Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY
THE GAMBLERS' METHODS
Rick Chryst, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference, says he's taking the University of Toledo point-shaving allegations "very seriously."
"Certainly, there's different ways people get approached," Chryst says. "It might be that the point spread is an easier way."
The alleged mating dance portrayed by authorities between gambler Ghazi "Gary" Manni, Toledo running back Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr. and other football and basketball players provides insight into the ways gamblers seduce athletes.:
Get them gambling:
The quickest way to corrupt an athlete is to help him run up a gambling tab he can't pay, says FBI special agent Jon Bunn, who briefs college men's and women's basketball teams during the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA basketball tournament. The jock then has a choice: Cough up cash he doesn't have or "provide a service," Bunn says.
"They come from behind on the court, so they can think they can come from behind in the gambling arena. But it doesn't end up that way. They wind up further in the hole," he says.
Manni, for example, would place wagers for the athletes with his cash, then pay them the profits if they won, according to an FBI affidavit. Electronic surveillance on Manni's phone captured McDougle asking the gambler to bet $2,000 for him on the GMAC Bowl between Toledo and the University of Texas-El Paso on Dec. 21, 2005.
"Gary informed McDougle that another player would be helping out," reads the affidavit.
Toledo won 45-13.
In a phone call in November 2005, according to the affidavit, the FBI heard Manni telling a Rockets basketball player, "Scooter had taken care of certain players on the team who would be helping (Manni) influence a game that day."
Wining and dining:
Gamblers seduce athletes with fancy dinners, booze and drugs and set up opportunities for sex. Manni invited the players he met in Toledo to join him in Detroit for free dinners and paid gambling sprees at the Greektown Casino downtown, the FBI affidavit says.
Similarly, when New York gangster Henry Hill first met two Boston College men's basketball players involved in that point-shaving scheme, he paid them $500 apiece just to have dinner with him. Hill says he also plied the players with free booze, cocaine and prostitutes.
Magic number:
A bribe of $10,000-plus will often persuade a reluctant athlete to cross over to the dark side, says Michael Franzese, a former Mafia soldier-turned-anti-gambling crusader.
Manni offered an unnamed football player "up to $10,000 to sit out particular games," according to the FBI affidavit. Nearly three decades ago, Hill says he paid three Boston College men's basketball players about $10,000 apiece to shave points in nine games during 1978-79.
"There's a certain number with these kids and it's $10,000," Franzese says. "You buy them a dinner, put a few bucks in their pocket, and you've got them."
--Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY
By Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY
When gambler Ghazi "Gary" Manni allegedly bribed University of Toledo running back Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr. and other players to rig football and basketball games from 2003-06, he didn't ask them to deliberately lose, according to federal law authorities.
The alleged game-fixer's pitch to McDougle was more insidious — and psychologically effective: Play to win, just by fewer points than the betting line set by the oddsmakers of Las Vegas. Don't beat yourself, beat the spread.
This illegal scam is known as point-shaving. The most common form involves paying athletes on favored teams to win the game — but by fewer points than the betting line.
If the Toledo Rockets football team were favored by 10, Manni would ask players to try to win by nine or fewer, according to an affidavit in the case filed by FBI special agent Brian Max. Manni allegedly would then bet big money on the opponent to "cover the spread." And clean up.
"Is it a huge problem? I wouldn't say that. But it's a continual problem," says Matt Heron, chief of the organized crime section at FBI headquarters in Washington. "It's out there. We know it's out there. Whether we can prove it is a different matter."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Boston College | Federal Bureau of Investigation | TOLEDO | University of Toledo | Henry Hill | Manni
Shaving points might seem like a no-harm, no-foul way to make easy money, Heron says. But a college athlete risks his education, future career, even freedom.
Point-shaving is a federal crime. Any player caught shaving points permanently loses NCAA eligibility in all sports and can be arrested and prosecuted.
Just ask Stevin "Hedake" Smith, an ex-team captain of Arizona State who served nearly a year in prison in 1999-2000. He played briefly with the Dallas Mavericks early in 1997, but his NBA prospects disappeared after he pleaded guilty in late 1997 to conspiracy to commit sports bribery for shaving points in four games in 1994.
Some Las Vegas sports gambling experts are suspicious of the Toledo football team's performance in the '05 season. Lopsided betting to one side or the other of a line changes the point spread — and raises questions in the gambling community.
During that season, the lines moved by two points or more on seven games, says RJ Bell, president of Pregame.com. Each time, the bettors driving the changes won. "The odds of that happening randomly are 128-1 … which tells me these guys knew something."
The "betting patterns" on Toledo during the 2005 season became so suspicious that Nevada's State Gaming Control Board investigated two games, chief enforcement officer Jerry Markling says. After concluding there were no violations by state casinos, the board closed its investigation in December 2005.
McDougle was arraigned March 30 in U.S. District Court in Detroit on charges of participating in a bribery scheme to influence games. He has been suspended from the football team but is still enrolled at school, University of Toledo spokesman Larry Burns says.
The FBI says it is still gathering information to make its case against McDougle. Manni, 50, from the Detroit area, has not been charged.
Once a player gets in with mobsters and gamblers, there's no turning back, warns former gangster Henry Hill, the inspiration for the movie Goodfellas, who orchestrated a point-shaving scheme with the Boston College's men's basketball team during the 1978-79 season. Players are forced to continue shaving points until the caper blows up or they're off the team.
Hill vividly recalls the warning he gave the players from New York gangster Jimmy "The Gent" Burke after they botched a point-shaving attempt: " 'Tell those Boston kids they can't play basketball with broken arms.' "
Balancing greed, desire
A less common form of point-shaving involves paying players on underdog teams to deliberately lose by more than the point spread. If the Rockets were predicted to lose by two points, Manni would tell players to lose by three or more, according to the FBI affidavit.
The problem? Even the greediest college athletes are highly competitive, experts say. It's much easier for game fixers to sell them on shaving points while still winning than losing on purpose.
"If the spread is 12 points, he doesn't care if he wins by 10 or 14," says Justin Wolfers, assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
After studying 44,120 NCAA Division I men's basketball games from 1989 to 2005, he concluded in a research paper last year that 1%, or nearly 500 games, involved "gambling-related corruption."
Point-shaving is easier to pull off and harder to catch than dumping games, says Michael Franzese, who refers to himself as a former Mafia soldier and ex-convict turned anti-gambling crusader. Athletes shaving points can still play hard and win. At key moments they try to manipulate the final score by slacking off on defense, missing free throws or committing a foul.
In an interview with the FBI on Dec. 14, according to the affidavit, McDougle admitted accepting cash, a car, a phone and other valuables from Manni. Also according to the affidavit, McDougle said he shared inside information and introduced Manni to other Toledo football and basketball players who might also be interested.
In the affidavit, McDougle, a 22-year-old senior with no declared major, told the FBI he never changed his play to affect a game's outcome. His best year for the Rockets was in 2004, rushing for 620 yards and seven touchdowns. After knee surgery, he played sparingly in 2005 and '06.
McDougle's attorney, James Burdick, says his client is innocent. The initial criminal complaint against McDougle was dropped April 18. Gina Balaya, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit, says that was done to give the FBI more time to investigate. She says she expects the case to go to a grand jury.
Manni's attorney, Neil Fink, declined to comment. Devlin Culliver, McDougle's coach at Shaw High School in East Cleveland, Ohio, believes "someone tried to corrupt" his star running back: "Scooter is not that kind of kid. Maybe he gave up information he shouldn't gave up. I'm hoping him he didn't."
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."
Contributing: Kevin Johnson and Thomas Ankner
Point-shaving remains a concern in college athletics
Posted '5/9/2007 4:06 PM
By Andy Morrison, The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade
Toledo's Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr., seen here carrying the ball during a 2004 game, had faced federal charges of participating in a bribery scheme to influence games. Last month, however, the criminal complaint against the running back was dropped.
ARIZONA STATE'S SCANDAL
The FBI cites the point-shaving investigation at Arizona State as a good example of how the illegal scam typically works.
During the 1993-94 season, according to the FBI website, Stevin "Hedake" Smith, star of the Sun Devils men's basketball team, conspired with teammate Isaac Burton and student/campus bookie Benny Silman to shave points. Mob associates from two crime families in Chicago and New Jersey bankrolled the scheme.
Silman told ESPN's Outside the Lines in 2002 that Smith refused to throw games but was willing to shave points. Sports bookmakers in Las Vegas nonetheless noticed unusually heavy betting action on the four games from Jan. 28-March 5, 1994, and tipped off law enforcement, says Matt Heron, chief of the organized crime section at FBI headquarters in Washington.
The players and Silman eventually confessed to sports bribery and served prison terms of two months to four years.
Smith could not be reached for comment. But during an interview with the CBS Evening News in 2006, he admitted: "I made a hell of a mistake that cost me my NBA career."
A game-by-game breakdown of how the players tried to beat the elusive point spread:
Jan. 28, 1994:The fixers pick Oregon State as the first game. It works. The Sun Devils were favored by 15 points and won by six. Smith scored a career-high 39 points and tied a Pacific 10 record with 10 three-pointers and, according to Smith in that Outside the Lines interview on ESPN, collected $20,000 for making sure his team didn't cover the spread.
"The only illegal thing I did was accept the money" Smith said in the interview. "As far as with the ball, when I had my uniform on, I gave 110%."
Jan. 30, 1994:The fixers get back to business against Oregon. Arizona State was favored by 11 1/2 points and won again by six. Smith scored 13 points.
Feb. 19, 1994:Against Southern California, Arizona State was favored by 9 points. They lost by 12. The fixers won big. But the scheme is unraveling. Too many mobsters want in; too many gamblers know too much.
March 5, 1994:The scam falls apart against the University of Washington. Arizona State was favored by 15 points. But gamblers bet nearly $1 million on a game that typically generates $50,000. With almost all the money coming in for the underdog, the betting line dropped to 3 points. Some suspicious Las Vegas casinos took the game "off the board," refusing to accept bets. Arizona State won by 18 points. Silman lost all his money, then took a beating from a 600-pound mob associate nicknamed "Big Red."
Then, alerted by Las Vegas bookmakers, the FBI in Phoenix opened its case and eventually nets the players and their co-conspirators around the USA.
Silman could not be reached for comment. But he told ESPN in 2002 that although the point-shaving was "easy" to pull off, it has been impossible to live down. "I'm branded for the rest of my life whether I like it or not."
--Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY
THE GAMBLERS' METHODS
Rick Chryst, commissioner of the Mid-American Conference, says he's taking the University of Toledo point-shaving allegations "very seriously."
"Certainly, there's different ways people get approached," Chryst says. "It might be that the point spread is an easier way."
The alleged mating dance portrayed by authorities between gambler Ghazi "Gary" Manni, Toledo running back Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr. and other football and basketball players provides insight into the ways gamblers seduce athletes.:
Get them gambling:
The quickest way to corrupt an athlete is to help him run up a gambling tab he can't pay, says FBI special agent Jon Bunn, who briefs college men's and women's basketball teams during the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA basketball tournament. The jock then has a choice: Cough up cash he doesn't have or "provide a service," Bunn says.
"They come from behind on the court, so they can think they can come from behind in the gambling arena. But it doesn't end up that way. They wind up further in the hole," he says.
Manni, for example, would place wagers for the athletes with his cash, then pay them the profits if they won, according to an FBI affidavit. Electronic surveillance on Manni's phone captured McDougle asking the gambler to bet $2,000 for him on the GMAC Bowl between Toledo and the University of Texas-El Paso on Dec. 21, 2005.
"Gary informed McDougle that another player would be helping out," reads the affidavit.
Toledo won 45-13.
In a phone call in November 2005, according to the affidavit, the FBI heard Manni telling a Rockets basketball player, "Scooter had taken care of certain players on the team who would be helping (Manni) influence a game that day."
Wining and dining:
Gamblers seduce athletes with fancy dinners, booze and drugs and set up opportunities for sex. Manni invited the players he met in Toledo to join him in Detroit for free dinners and paid gambling sprees at the Greektown Casino downtown, the FBI affidavit says.
Similarly, when New York gangster Henry Hill first met two Boston College men's basketball players involved in that point-shaving scheme, he paid them $500 apiece just to have dinner with him. Hill says he also plied the players with free booze, cocaine and prostitutes.
Magic number:
A bribe of $10,000-plus will often persuade a reluctant athlete to cross over to the dark side, says Michael Franzese, a former Mafia soldier-turned-anti-gambling crusader.
Manni offered an unnamed football player "up to $10,000 to sit out particular games," according to the FBI affidavit. Nearly three decades ago, Hill says he paid three Boston College men's basketball players about $10,000 apiece to shave points in nine games during 1978-79.
"There's a certain number with these kids and it's $10,000," Franzese says. "You buy them a dinner, put a few bucks in their pocket, and you've got them."
--Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY
By Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY
When gambler Ghazi "Gary" Manni allegedly bribed University of Toledo running back Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr. and other players to rig football and basketball games from 2003-06, he didn't ask them to deliberately lose, according to federal law authorities.
The alleged game-fixer's pitch to McDougle was more insidious — and psychologically effective: Play to win, just by fewer points than the betting line set by the oddsmakers of Las Vegas. Don't beat yourself, beat the spread.
This illegal scam is known as point-shaving. The most common form involves paying athletes on favored teams to win the game — but by fewer points than the betting line.
If the Toledo Rockets football team were favored by 10, Manni would ask players to try to win by nine or fewer, according to an affidavit in the case filed by FBI special agent Brian Max. Manni allegedly would then bet big money on the opponent to "cover the spread." And clean up.
"Is it a huge problem? I wouldn't say that. But it's a continual problem," says Matt Heron, chief of the organized crime section at FBI headquarters in Washington. "It's out there. We know it's out there. Whether we can prove it is a different matter."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Boston College | Federal Bureau of Investigation | TOLEDO | University of Toledo | Henry Hill | Manni
Shaving points might seem like a no-harm, no-foul way to make easy money, Heron says. But a college athlete risks his education, future career, even freedom.
Point-shaving is a federal crime. Any player caught shaving points permanently loses NCAA eligibility in all sports and can be arrested and prosecuted.
Just ask Stevin "Hedake" Smith, an ex-team captain of Arizona State who served nearly a year in prison in 1999-2000. He played briefly with the Dallas Mavericks early in 1997, but his NBA prospects disappeared after he pleaded guilty in late 1997 to conspiracy to commit sports bribery for shaving points in four games in 1994.
Some Las Vegas sports gambling experts are suspicious of the Toledo football team's performance in the '05 season. Lopsided betting to one side or the other of a line changes the point spread — and raises questions in the gambling community.
During that season, the lines moved by two points or more on seven games, says RJ Bell, president of Pregame.com. Each time, the bettors driving the changes won. "The odds of that happening randomly are 128-1 … which tells me these guys knew something."
The "betting patterns" on Toledo during the 2005 season became so suspicious that Nevada's State Gaming Control Board investigated two games, chief enforcement officer Jerry Markling says. After concluding there were no violations by state casinos, the board closed its investigation in December 2005.
McDougle was arraigned March 30 in U.S. District Court in Detroit on charges of participating in a bribery scheme to influence games. He has been suspended from the football team but is still enrolled at school, University of Toledo spokesman Larry Burns says.
The FBI says it is still gathering information to make its case against McDougle. Manni, 50, from the Detroit area, has not been charged.
Once a player gets in with mobsters and gamblers, there's no turning back, warns former gangster Henry Hill, the inspiration for the movie Goodfellas, who orchestrated a point-shaving scheme with the Boston College's men's basketball team during the 1978-79 season. Players are forced to continue shaving points until the caper blows up or they're off the team.
Hill vividly recalls the warning he gave the players from New York gangster Jimmy "The Gent" Burke after they botched a point-shaving attempt: " 'Tell those Boston kids they can't play basketball with broken arms.' "
Balancing greed, desire
A less common form of point-shaving involves paying players on underdog teams to deliberately lose by more than the point spread. If the Rockets were predicted to lose by two points, Manni would tell players to lose by three or more, according to the FBI affidavit.
The problem? Even the greediest college athletes are highly competitive, experts say. It's much easier for game fixers to sell them on shaving points while still winning than losing on purpose.
"If the spread is 12 points, he doesn't care if he wins by 10 or 14," says Justin Wolfers, assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
After studying 44,120 NCAA Division I men's basketball games from 1989 to 2005, he concluded in a research paper last year that 1%, or nearly 500 games, involved "gambling-related corruption."
Point-shaving is easier to pull off and harder to catch than dumping games, says Michael Franzese, who refers to himself as a former Mafia soldier and ex-convict turned anti-gambling crusader. Athletes shaving points can still play hard and win. At key moments they try to manipulate the final score by slacking off on defense, missing free throws or committing a foul.
In an interview with the FBI on Dec. 14, according to the affidavit, McDougle admitted accepting cash, a car, a phone and other valuables from Manni. Also according to the affidavit, McDougle said he shared inside information and introduced Manni to other Toledo football and basketball players who might also be interested.
In the affidavit, McDougle, a 22-year-old senior with no declared major, told the FBI he never changed his play to affect a game's outcome. His best year for the Rockets was in 2004, rushing for 620 yards and seven touchdowns. After knee surgery, he played sparingly in 2005 and '06.
McDougle's attorney, James Burdick, says his client is innocent. The initial criminal complaint against McDougle was dropped April 18. Gina Balaya, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit, says that was done to give the FBI more time to investigate. She says she expects the case to go to a grand jury.
Manni's attorney, Neil Fink, declined to comment. Devlin Culliver, McDougle's coach at Shaw High School in East Cleveland, Ohio, believes "someone tried to corrupt" his star running back: "Scooter is not that kind of kid. Maybe he gave up information he shouldn't gave up. I'm hoping him he didn't."
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."
Contributing: Kevin Johnson and Thomas Ankner
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Well if it's important enough to appear in "The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade" then it's important enough to appear here.