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Impact of Gambling on Athletes and Coaches

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Gambling has an adverse impact on the individual athlete's or coach's integrity. Reputation diminishes, and the athlete becomes better known for participation in gambling activities than for athletic feats and career accomplishments. Gambling scandals can ruin careers, and permanently mar the individual's ability to participate in the sport again. As Finley, Finley & Fountain (n.d.). point out, gambling also has the potential to ruin the integrity of the entire team, league, or whole sport. "Ensuring an honest and uncorrupted game has been one of the biggest challenges facing sport," (Finley, Finley & Fountain, n.d., p. 41). Baseball in particular has been plagued by gambling scandals. However, other professional sports have also revealed the prevalence of widespread corruption. Finley, Finley & Fountain (n.d.) also note that gambling on college sports has been a problem since the CCNY point-shaving scandal of the 1950s. Point shaving proved lucrative enough for high-profile black market gambling syndicates to flourish. Although most players, coaches, and teams are not corrupt, the few that are have sullied the image of all sports. The corruption inherent in Major League Baseball has almost become a cliché. The Pete Rose fiasco shows how one man can really take the brunt of the blame that could really be shared with other, less famous, players. His being ostracized from baseball and prohibited from being in the baseball hall of fame does not obscure the fact that many

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