When Student And Faculty Handbooks Meet Sports Betting Policies

• Saint Joseph’s University bans all students, staff, contractors, and faculty from betting on the school’s events.
• Purdue is looking to take a similar approach in banning the staff, but potentially permitting the students.
• The framework of the idea is rather unsettled with the legalization of sports betting only a year and a half in.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University’s Board of Trustees will meet on Oct. 10 to potentially discuss the issue of sports betting as it relates to those affiliated with the university. The President of Purdue, Mitch Daniels, has made it clear he wants the staff at the university to have zero connection to sports betting.

If everything goes to the extreme, the students at the university would also join the sports betting ban.

“We believe this is the right action to take to reduce the potential for any student-athlete to feel compromised, for any implication of profiteering or inside information, or other problems,” said Daniels.

Purdue’s Board of Trustees agreed to this belief and organized a draft of a new policy. Tim Doty, Purdue’s director of public information, explained that the draft still remained similar to what was projected a few weeks back. Faculty, staff, and possibly students would be banned from placing a sports wager on Purdue athletic events or contests involving the university.

This would include unlicensed channels as well as legal sportsbooks. However, the university is finding it difficult to set the standards.

“When we talk to people with the state or the NCAA or other schools, everyone’s willing to help,” said Tom Mitchell, Purdue’s associate AD of compliance. “But not everyone knows what to do. So, we’re building things for the first time.”

A Look Into Saint Joseph’s Student Handbook

Purdue isn’t the first school to implement or look to implement a sports betting ban. Saint Joseph’s inserted a section into the student handbook entitled the “Interim Policy on Sports Wagering”.

This quick, three-page policy covers many scopes of legal sports betting, from prohibiting staff, faculty, the board, and students from wagering on university-participating sporting events, to highlighting the release of nonpublic information.

It also details attempting to influence the outcomes of sporting events and about making wagers on behalf of athletes or those prevented from wagering.

The handbook even details what exactly a sports wager is, which includes betting with a friend involving any monetary or item-based transaction (such as buying them dinner) as well as Super Bowl Squares and March Madness Pools.

Purdue Looking Toward Saint Joseph’s Hard Stance On Sports Betting

Saint Joseph’s was quick to the punch on sports betting due to the proactive mindset of their administration.

As Delaware and New Jersey legalized sports betting only days after the repeal of PASPA, Saint Joseph’s was in the middle of a sports betting haven. Atlantic City is only a one-hour drive east, and getting to Delaware Park in Wilmington due south is just as easy.

Pennsylvania  moved forward with its own legalization a few months later (November 2018) and Philadelphia became entranced with opening multiple sportsbooks.

Saint Joseph’s is now within close proximity to five Philadelphia sportsbooks, with Sugarhouse Casino only nine miles away. With trains and buses able to also transport bettors to the other locations in an hour or less, the threat of an integrity issue was negated from the start.

Purdue isn’t located to any sportsbooks – only having two within a two-hour driving distance.

Still, online and mobile sports betting in Indiana is operational, and this could pose separate problems for the board of trustees. With the NCAA headquartered in-state, the belief is that they will also have their ideas floating around the minds of the Purdue board.

Those involved with Purdue may only have to wait until Thursday to figure out how the new policy will affect them, as this is the potential release of the sports betting policy draft.

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