Throwing The Game

(5 of 6)

Years of wiretaps by federal and state law-enforcement authorities have repeatedly documented the links between legal and illegal gambling. Typical of this arrangement was a Schenectady, N.Y., gambling ring uncovered in 1997 by the New York State Organized Crime Task Force. In raids in July that year in Las Vegas and Schenectady, authorities arrested 15 bookmakers, confiscated $436,000 in cash and uncovered evidence of a multimillion-dollar betting ring. The Schenectady bookies ran a full-scale operation complete with computers and multiple phone lines. In one eight-week period, police wiretaps turned up 5,800 calls to their "wire room" near downtown Schenectady from gamblers placing bets on college and professional basketball games.

When the need arose, the Schenectady gamblers had their very own contact in Las Vegas. He was Thomas DiNola, a former Schenectady resident who fled New York State in 1989 to avoid a $250,000 civil judgment arising from another gambling case. He relocated to Las Vegas but kept up ties to the hometown bookies. As a local bookie told a potential customer, in a conversation picked up on wiretaps, "We're a pretty big operation. We're based in Las Vegas, and I work this local branch. We're a full-tilt operation."

DiNola gave the Schenectady bookies a commission for layoff bets they sent his way, and business was good. In one 19-day period during college basketball's March Madness in 1997, DiNola and his associates accepted 336 sports bets over the phone totaling $312,620. At his trial, DiNola testified that on one day he handled $80,000 in bets on 65 games. "I took all the bets and placed them with sports books in Las Vegas," he said. After deducting a commission, he wired any winnings to New York. When authorities raided his business and home in Nevada, they confiscated $286,000 in cash. DiNola eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 1 1/2 to three years in prison and fined $15,000. A dozen others also pleaded guilty and were given sentences ranging from probation to jail time.

No one believes closing the Nevada loophole would end gambling on college campuses. But should you have any doubt about the connection between the fixing of college games and the legal sports books of Nevada, consider the Northwestern University men's basketball scandal.

Two Northwestern players ultimately pleaded guilty to gambling charges growing out of a point-shaving scheme to fix three basketball games in 1995. In return for payoffs from gamblers, the players agreed to hold down the score so that Northwestern would lose by more than the oddsmakers' point spread.

At the center of the scandal was Kevin Pendergast, a former Notre Dame football star who had gained fame in 1992 when he was hurriedly pressed into action during the Sugar Bowl game after the team's place kicker was injured. He kicked one field goal and an extra point at a critical time, helping the Irish to a dramatic 39-28 come-from-behind upset victory over favored Florida. Two years later, he kicked the winning field goal for Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl in a stirring 24-21 victory over Texas A&M.; He had arrived at Notre Dame on an athletic scholarship and was, in the words of a Notre Dame official, "a man of good character and strong values."

After he graduated, Pendergast's life took a different turn. Determined to become an entertainer, he formed a band. Nightlife brought him into contact with gamblers, and before long he was nearly $20,000 in debt.

To help pay his bookies, Pendergast orchestrated the Northwestern point-shaving scheme. In February 1995 he made contact with Kenneth Dion Lee, 21, a starting guard on the Northwestern men's basketball squad. A three-point specialist who was one of the team's leading scorers, Lee had his own gambling problems. At one point Northwestern had suspended him for it. He had run up big debts too.

Pendergast promised to pay Lee thousands of dollars if he could hold down the score of certain Northwestern games. Lee agreed and later recruited starting center Dewey Williams and a third player. A college friend put Pendergast in touch with an acquaintance, Brian Irving, who lived in Reno and agreed to place the bets. Over the next few weeks, Pendergast and Irving put the plan into gear. Three Northwestern games were selected: against Wisconsin on Feb. 15, Penn State on Feb. 22 and Michigan on March 1. Once the Nevada sports books set the line, Pendergast would telephone Lee with that number. Northwestern, the underdog in all three games, had to lose each by more than the spread.