Collaborating with the FBI

by Jim Wuelfing,

Director of Prevention and Recovery

Mass. Council on Compulsive Gambling

I have often stated that I am happy that I got into recovery long before the age of YouTube, Facebook and cell phones with cameras.  As is true of many folks who were once addicts, the dirt on me was not buried too deep!  I spent many years looking over my shoulder and covering my tracks wary of “the law”.

So it was an interesting full circle experience for me when I called the FBI in Washington. I was interested in talking to someone who had some experience with investigating college athletes and gambling.  Everyone I dealt with at the FBI was very helpful and after following a few protocols, I was put in touch with Special Agent, Randy Sealby.  A few phone calls later and we sent Peter Swanson, a filmmaker with Global Visions and Associates Inc., out to Chicago to create an educational video to augment our college athlete training program.

An education is exactly what we got!  Agent Sealby, who has investigated college gambling crimes, informed us that most of the organized college gambling is on men’s football and basketball and to a lesser degree on men’s hockey and baseball.  Women’s sports are not often involved but there has been activity on women’s basketball in the past.  Agent Sealby told us some details of particular cases where athletes got involved in minor betting, twenty-five dollars on a game.  They quickly got to a point where they were several thousands of dollars in debt and it was a short trip to the slippery slope of throwing games by missing a few hoops or a purposeful fumble.

The NCAA has regulations against gambling for any NCAA athlete. There are two basic rules: (1) A student-athlete may not place or take a bet of any kind on the outcome of any collegiate or professional sports event in which the NCAA conducts a championship and (2) A student-athlete may not exchange information about his or her team with anyone who gambles on college or professional sports. 

Agent Sealby believes that these were not bad students, just students who made some bad decisions.  The consequences of these decision can be quite severe; loss of the right to play the sport in college, loss of scholarship and loss of reputation. 

And so my collaboration with the FBI was an eye-opener for me and gave us a great 10-minute video to use in our programming. We hope to have the video available soon and will keep everyone posted. Or if you have any questions, you can contact me directly at jim@masscompulsivegambling.org / 617-426-4554.