UA Sponsors Gambling Symposium

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Gambling Action Team will host a symposium on campus Feb. 22 addressing the problem of gambling on college campuses.

The symposium, titled “A Punt, A Dunk and A Bet: An Inside Look At College Sports Gambling,” will feature Thomas French, who initiated the FBI’s National Sports Awareness Program for Professional and Collegiate Sports. He will speak to athletic department personnel and students.

Also scheduled to speak are Dr. George McClellan, vice president for student development at Dickinson State University and co-chair of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ Gambling Task Force, and Chris King, UA’s associate athletics director for compliance.

The symposium will include three sessions, one geared for athletic department staff members, one for faculty and staff and one for students.

“We are very excited about our second annual campuswide symposium, because it is the first of its type that encompasses every aspect of college life at The University of Alabama,” said Bryan Oliver, career consultant and co-chair of the UA Gambling Action Team.

“We are equally excited about the speakers who have agreed to participate in this symposium,” said King, who also co-chairs the team. “They will be able to give the audience a wide array of information when it comes to gambling on college campuses. Our university administrators from around campus as well as all of our athletes, and our entire athletic administration will be attending one of the symposium sessions.”

The mission of the UA Gambling Action Team, formed in 2003, is to facilitate campuswide awareness and assistance strategies to address problem gambling and related issues.

Other campus sponsors of the symposium are Student Judicial Affairs, the athletics department, the Counseling Center, SGA/Interfraternity Council, Residential Communities, Human Resources, Bama Dining Services, the UA Police Department, and the offices of public relations and student affairs.

For more information call King at 348-3615 or Oliver at 348-4838.

AGENDA:

SPEAKERS:

Thomas French
The Compliance Group, LLC

Thomas French ended his 28-year career with the FBI in 1998, after 14 years of being in charge of several FBI offices in the New York City area. His area of expertise includes gambling, organized crime and white-collar crime. In 1983, he initiated the FBI’s National Sports Awareness Program for Professional and Collegiate Sports and has made numerous presentations to professional athletes in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League in addition to his collegiate presentations. He has appeared on ESPN Sports Center as an organized crime expert on sports bribery and gambling and has been featured as an expert in these subjects in The Washington Post, The New York Post, and The New York Times. He has spoken on behalf of the NCAA at the NCAA Convention and several regional compliance seminars. He routinely speaks to collegiate sports teams on sports wagering.

Dr. George S. McClellan
Vice President for Student Development, Dickinson State University

Dr. George S. McClellan, vice president for student development at Dickinson State University, served as the co-chair for NASPA’s Gambling Task Force. He was the lead author of NASPA’s invited paper on campus gambling, and he is the lead editor for the forthcoming New Directions in Student Services monograph on campus gambling. McClellan has presented numerous programs on campus gambling at regional and national conferences over the past decade.

Chris King
Associate Athletics Director for Compliance, The University of Alabama

Chris King has been associate athletics director for compliance at The University of Alabama since June 2002 and serves as co-chair of the university-wide gambling action team. At UA, King is responsible for the implementation of the NCAA rules compliance program and gambling prevention programs. King has led several presentations on student-athlete gambling and NCAA enforcement, including a tele-seminar for Collegiate Proactive Solutions Inc. and the 2005 NASPA Convention. King also contributed two chapters in the forthcoming New Directions in Student Services monograph on campus gambling.