Georgia football staffer caught violating NCAA's sports gambling policy

An unnamed Georgia football staffer is no longer with the team after violating the NCAA rules for gambling on professional sports.

The Athens-Banner Herald reported the wagers took place in August of 2020, but were not discovered and processed until 2023, according to Georgia’s deputy athletic director Will Lawler .

The staffer was cited for for a Level III violation and will need to complete a sports gambling education program if he or she is hired by another SEC school.

“If the staff member is hired by another SEC institution in the future the staff member is required to complete a sports gambling education program/session, and the hiring institution is required to submit a written plan to the Conference office for monitoring the staff member to assure he does not commit similar violations in the future,” according to Georgia's violation summary.

Kirby Smart's Shared His Take on Gambling

Gambling has become the new norm in the sports world, which has made it harder and harder to keep coaches, players and other staffers from participating.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart believes the only way to limit the violations or "mistakes" is to continue to educate his players, but even then it's difficult to do due to such easy access.

“I can’t turn the TV on now without seeing something [about gambling]. There’s a lot of debate out there about what’s right and what’s wrong, but the NCAA rule is pretty harsh for gambling relative to some other things. It’s pretty obvious why: they don’t want that infiltrating teams,” Smart said back in May of last year . “There’s a lot of states — including ours — where that’s been a great debate whether to allow it to come into your state. Well, it’s more about revenue for the state. It’s about protection for your schools.

Kids can do this regardless of what state. It’s easy access. I see it everywhere. We try our best to educate the players and, sometimes, it takes somebody having a pitfall for somebody to learn from their mistake.”

Smart recognized that it's hard and unfair to make a rule and punishment when every state is different but he would much rather his staff and players spend their money elsewhere.

“I hope that our guys would be fiscally responsible that they would choose not to do that. And you've got to ask yourself: Are these kids that are 18-22 years old smart enough to know the difference [between a sport they’re involved in and a sport they’re not]? And it scares me,” Smart said. “I would not want our players doing that at all whether it was legal or not. I would rather their money be in something a little safer than in gambling."

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