Students weigh risks, rewards of betting on March Madness

Sophomore Will Hagan stares at his TV, on the edge of his seat, as he watches Florida Atlantic University play the Memphis Tigers in the rst round of March Madness. With only a few minutes left, the game is close, and with every basket, tensions rise. But Memphis falls one point short. With this rstround upset, Hagan’s bracket tanks, preventing him from winning $50 and highly coveted bragging rights among his friends.

March Madness fans submit roughly 70 million brackets every year, according to the American Gaming Association, and while in 2018 just over 1% of Americans could bet legally on sports, that gure has jumped to 56% today.

Paly students’ betting habits do not re ect national numbers, however, as just over two thirds of students think betting is healthy when little is at stake, and around two-thirds have never bet money on sports, according to a Schoology survey of 70 students. While federal law prohibits minors from betting on sports and California law prohibits most types of sports betting, a sophomore who agreed to be interviewed only if his name wasn't used due to the illegality of his activity, said by using Fli , an online sportsbook application, he easily bypassed the law.

“I just said I was over 18 when I signed up, and it didn’t ask me to verify it,” he said. He also said he feels con dent betting virtually.

“You start o with $1 to bet with if you don’t want to spend your own money,” he said. “I use my own money (because) I have enough selfcontrol to bet reasonably.”

Sophomore Henry Harding, who also bets using Fli , said potentially winning money motivates him.

“I bet on March Madness women’s tennis, Japanese baseball … anything that is a competition at any time of the day,” Harding said. “I bet to make as much money as possible.”

However, other students bet with di erent motivations. Senior Grace Corrigan, who participated in a March Madness bracket with her friends, said she enjoys the jocular nature of the competition.

“I bet with my friends because I thought it would be fun, and none of us took it very seriously,” Corrigan said. “Whoever lost the brackets had to get this gross, Willow’s #7 sauce, poured on them.”

Senior Hillary Studdert said the fun of participating in March Madness brackets comes from her and her friends’ competitiveness despite their inexperience.

“We took it pretty seriously for not really following NCAA basketball, and it’s a fun group activity,” Studdert said. While the excitement of betting is widespread, some are worried about the e ects

Beams of white spill out of the oodlights and onto the eld as the crowd cheers from the bleachers and the band plays the pregame “Heavy Action.” Senior and varsity football player Lincoln Tutor reaches for the jar of smelling salts and takes a deep breath as he prepares for the game.

From students to professionals, many athletes like Tutor use smelling salts. ese salts consist of a mix of ammonia and other compounds including water and ethanol, and other proponents.Tutor said they boost performance and increase focus, but the medical research on the topic is less clear.

Tutor said he and most of the football team use smelling salts before a game.

“It’s normal,” Tutor said. “All of these are like pregame rituals.”

Smelling salts function by irritating a person’s nose and lungs, causing a higher breathing rate and hypothetically causing more oxygen to circulate in a person’s body. Tutor said smelling salts provide an energizing sensation at the trade-o of short-term comfort.

“Inhaling them feels like a little headache, stings your nostrils,” Tutor said. “It feels like a brain freeze. It wakes you up.” ough smelling salts are legal in the United States for both restoring consciousness to people who have fainted and for athletic use, the safety of smelling salts has yet to be proven. Most high school and professional athletic associations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency and National Collegiate Athletic Association allow the use of smelling salts. However, smelling salts are banned in boxing. it could have on teens. Stanford basketball head coach, former college basketball player of the year candidate and Paly parent Jerod Haase said youth gambling concerns him.

While some athletes use smelling salts to improve athletic performance, scienti c research has yielded con icting results on their performance bene ts.

“ e habit of gambling is something that, generally, should be avoided,” Haase said.

“It’s not a great thing, especially when it's illegal, based on age or location or industry.

But especially when young people are in high school or younger, getting involved in betting or gambling in any way can be harmful and should be discouraged.”

A 2014 study by the Journal of Exercise Physiology found that the use of smelling salts o ers no boosts to athletic performance, while a 2018 study by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found potential positive e ects on the amount of force muscles can exert,

However, Haase said that in the right circumstances, when money is not a factor, brackets can be harmless.

“Do I think lling out a bracket with your buddies is a harmful activity? No. Do I think that putting down a penny and having the ability to get two pennies in a bet with your friends is the scariest thing in the world? No, but it’s all a slippery slope, and it gets to this gray area where it can get big pretty quick,” Haase said. “Once you do put something down, you can get something in return. at changes the whole dynamic.” ough Haase said he acknowledges that betting on March Madness is widespread, he said he and the Stanford mens basketball team he coaches, who are not permitted by the NCAA to wager any money on any collegiate sport, do not embrace the culture or let the pressure a ect their game performance.

“I’ve done a pretty good job of ignoring it, and it doesn't really impact my thought process with anything,” Haase said. “For me and what I've seen from my team, we are not impacted in terms of performance or pressure, but I would put an asterisk by that because other teams can be impacted, and, in the future, it’s going to be something that will have a stronger impact.”

However, Haase said pressure from social media can cause unhealthy gambling and harm players.

Schools now deal with hundreds of occurrences of abuse directed toward college athletes as a result of missed parlays and bets according to Mark Potter, head of delivery for Epic Risk Management. While online betting has spurred a recent in ux of gambling, California’s Prop. 27, a proposal that centered around legalizing online gambling by allocating revenue from gambling to solving homelessness, did not pass.

Physical Education teacher David Duran voted in favor of the proposition, but he said he still sees the danger of teen betting.

“Everyone should understand (that) you can only wager as much money as you can a ord to lose,” Duran said. “Anybody 16, 17 or 18 is not always aware of that.”

And Haase said the addition of online betting presents a dangerous trade o , risking entertainment for possible addiction.

“When you go online, the accessibility increases, and if you’re considering gambling and betting an entertainment source, the accessibility is a positive,” Haase said. “But the reality is that it comes with the consequence that more people are going to become addicted to gambling.”

Haase said this risk will only continue to grow as gambling becomes legalized. e amount of everything from marketing money to actual money being bet on games is astronomical already and will just continue to grow as more and more states make laws that allow it,” Haase said. “I’m extremely aware that the future (of betting) is going to change quickly.”

Alec Bonnard Sta Writer

certainly mask something like that or a neck injury,” Kofman said. “I don’t think there’s a reason to use them.” Other potential side e ects of smelling salts include allergic reactions, asthma-related problems, coughing, breathing di culties, headaches and diarrhea, though most of these side e ects are rare. Most smelling salts contain ammonia at a concentration of 50 to 100 parts per million, enough to cause nasal, mouth and throat irritation if used for two hours. However, the majority of athletes only use smelling salts for a few seconds at time. Kofman said alternatives to smelling salts like ca eine exist but can also cause users health problems.

“If they’re trying to wake up, a cup of co ee (or) soda with eine would give you a stimulant ect without the ect hyperextending your neck or causing you to want to shake your body as much,” Kofman said. “But just like anything else, taking a stimulant like s bodies to have other ects. You have to know how much ca eine

Kofman also said regardless of their ectiveness, athletes are constantly looking for an “Is it helpful?” Kofman said. “Who knows? If somebody thinks it’s going to help them, then

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