In Pennsylvania, where sports betting became legal last fall, bettors can place a wager on in-state schools Penn State to win the Rose Bowl or Villanova to win its conference championship.

But in New Jersey, which approved sports bets last summer, gamblers can’t put money on an in-state school like Seton Hall making the Final Four or on flagship state university Rutgers to beat ... anyone.

In other words, the rules for betting on your home-state college team in the new world of legal sports gambling depend on where you live.

What about New York, which is poised to allow limited legal sports betting this summer?

As things stand today, no bet would be allowed in New York on any event involving a New York college team, no matter where the game is played. And you couldn’t bet on any collegiate event taking place in the state. Bets would be allowed on non-New York collegiate events and on almost all forms of pro sports.

That means you can’t take Syracuse to beat Duke in basketball at the Carrier Dome (or at Cameron Indoor Stadium.) You can’t bet on Cornell winning the Ivy League football title. You can’t put a wager on Onondaga Community College’s chances of winning its fourth straight national men’s lacrosse championship.

You also can’t bet on the outcome of a Notre Dame vs. Clemson Pinstripe Bowl played in the Bronx, or a North Carolina vs. Kansas NCAA tournament game played in Syracuse.

The New York Gaming Commission is scheduled to vote today on rules for operating and licensing sports betting. In addition to the ban on in-state college wagers, those rules also prohibit online gambling and require players to be present in an authorized betting location.

If the rules are approved, sports books could be operating across Upstate New York by mid- to late summer -- just in time for the upcoming football season.

New York is on its way to joining New Jersey and several other states in allowing sports betting, but with a ban on action involving in-state teams. Illinois is the most recent state to approve a sport betting bill, and it also prohibits in-state college bets.

Six other states have approved some degree of sports betting since the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2018 struck down a federal law that had effectively prohibited sportsbooks outside of Nevada. They are Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Delaware, New Mexico, West Virginia and Rhode Island (which also bars in-state college bets).

An issue of ‘integrity’

Bans on college sports betting -- especially those close to home -- stem from concerns about integrity, gaming experts say.

“I think there’s an acknowledgment that the risk is greater when you’re talking about betting on college, more so than professional sports,” said Karl Sleight, a Saratoga Springs lawyer specializing in gaming law. He noted that college players make little money (outside their scholarships), and therefore could be seen as more likely to be swayed by lucrative offers to cheat.

"I think there’s a feeling that that kind of language (prohibiting local college bets) would be a prophylactic (preventitive) for integrity issues that may exist,'' said Sleight, who is with the Harris Beach law firm.

The issue goes beyond betting on the outcome of a given game, Sleight said. Sports bets can be taken on any number of in-game propositions, such as whether a specific baseball player will hit a homer or whether a basketball player fouls out.

“Some bets are not traditional,” he said. "It creates a widespread platform of choices for a gambler. That can impact the integrity of the situation."

Colleges themselves are often opposed to sports gaming. The NCAA, the governing body for major college sports, has this statement on its official site:

“The NCAA opposes all forms of legal and illegal sports wagering, which has the potential to undermine the integrity of sports contests and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes and the intercollegiate athletics community.”

That also puts pressure on state’s to limit collegiate gambling, said Chris Grove, managing director of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a research firm specializing in the gambling industry.

“These restrictions are often put in place to assuage concerns or opposition from colleges, universities, or conferences, who can wield significant power in state capitals,” Grove wrote in an email. "Ostensibly, the rules are meant to help shield collegiate players from offers to fix a match or shave points.

“In practice,” Grove wrote, “the rules likely accomplish nothing, as individuals and entities who are interested in corrupting games to profit from betting are highly unlikely to use the regulated sports betting market to do so.”

A legal regulated market contains more “tripwires for suspicious behavior and creates a significant audit trail, all of which makes for a poor environment in which to conduct illegal activity," Grove said.

Instead, Grove suggests a better option is “funding and training to educate college athletes about sports gambling in general and how to deal with outsiders looking to gain information or influence their play.”

Several bill amending the proposed sports betting rules in New York have been introduced in the state Legislature, but time is running out for them to be passed before the 2019 session ends June 19. Some of the changes would be significant -- including provisions to allow online bets.

But the bills currently under review keep the ban on in-state college betting in almost identical language to the rules before the Gaming Commission:

“ 'Prohibited sports event ' means any collegiate sport or athletic event that takes place in New York or a sport or athletic event in which any New York college team participates regardless of where the event takes place."

The only change in the Senate/Assembly bills is a line adding high school sports to the list of prohibited events.

The rules the Gaming Commission will consider Monday can take effect even if the Legislature takes no action. They specify that sports betting is only allowed for players who are physically present in betting lounges at the four full-service or “Vegas-style” casinos that have opened in Upstate New York in the past 2 1/2 years. By extension, betting would also be allowed in lounges at full-service casinos operated in the state by the Oneida, Seneca and Akwesasne Mohawk Indian nations.

The four commercial (non-Indian) casinos that would be allowed to host sports books are Resorts World Catskills in Sullivan County; del Lago Resort & Casino near Waterloo in the Finger Lakes; Tioga Downs west of Binghamton in the Southern Tier, and Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady. Some of those lounges are already under construction.

The Oneida Nation has started construction on its lounges, to be located in its big Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona and the Point Place Casino in Bridgeport, and later in the Yellow Brick Road Casino in Chittenango. The Senecas and Mohawks are still considering whether to host sports lounges.

This article is a reprint from NewYorkUpstate.com.   To view the original story and comment, click here.