Students, faculty, staff and contractors at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana will not be allowed to bet on Boilermakers games, starting with the October 19 meetup against Iowa.
University trustees recently approved the policy, the second of its type in the U.S.—but probably not for very long, said Purdue President Mitch Daniels. “I think it’s inevitable that other places have to be in the asking-questions stage, at least starting to look at this. There was a sense that we’d better move fast. This thing is on top of us,” Daniels said.
The ban affects more than 63,000 students, 19,000 faculty and staff members, plus contractors at the West Lafayette, Purdue Northwest and Purdue Fort Wayne campuses.
Purdue Legal Counsel Steve Schultz said his staff will be tasked with drafting the final guidelines, including enforcement and penalties, which could include termination for employees who disregard the ban. The legal staff also will outline rules regarding wagers on March Madness pools and other social settings, Schultz said.
Purdue President for Ethics and Compliance Alysa Rollock explained the new policy prohibits wagering by faculty, staff, students and contractors from placing, accepting or soliciting a sports wager on their own behalf or on behalf of anyone else on “any team, student-athlete, coach, statistical occurrence, contest or event,” for or against Purdue. The policy will cover bets made in Indiana, the U.S. or overseas, whether legal or illegal.
“We’re interested in fair play, integrity of competition, well-being of our student-athletes and coaches and other connected with the program. We believe that when we refrain, we reduce the potential for deceit and ill-gotten gain,” Rollock said.
Daniels said he and faculty members pushed for the ban to protect student-athletes from pressures from people on campus seeking inside information on upcoming games and also to protect the integrity of the university. He said officials from other Indiana colleges and universities asked lawmakers to keep legalized betting out of Division I college ranks. “They didn’t go for that, which left us where we are today,” Daniels said. The legislature approved sports betting earlier this year; the first legalized bets were made September 1 and the first mobile bets occurred October 3.
The only other school with a similar prohibition is Saint Joseph’s University, a private school in Philadelphia with 20 men’s and women’s teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference. According to its policy, “Students, faculty, staff, contractors and members of the board of trustees are not permitted to place an otherwise legal sports wager on any team, contest or event, or individual affiliated with the Saint Joseph’s University Department of Athletics.”
Noah Scott, a Purdue student appointed to the board of trustees, said, “I think most of the students I talked to shared the feeling that this was the right thing to do.” Purdue Athletic Director Mike Bobinski stated, “Today’s action by the board of trustees sends a strong message of support to our student-athletes. They can be confident in conducting their daily business on campus without fear of being compromised for information or in other ways that might be connected to sports gambling activities.”
