SOURCE: USA Today

When gambler Ghazi "Gary" Manni allegedly bribed University of Toledo running back Harvey "Scooter" McDougle Jr. and other players to rig football and basketball games from 2003-06, he didn't ask them to deliberately lose, according to federal law authorities.

The alleged game-fixer's pitch to McDougle was more insidious — and psychologically effective: Play to win, just by fewer points than the betting line set by the oddsmakers of Las Vegas. Don't beat yourself, beat the spread.

This illegal scam is known as point-shaving. The most common form involves paying athletes on favored teams to win the game — but by fewer points than the betting line.

If the Toledo Rockets football team were favored by 10, Manni would ask players to try to win by nine or fewer, according to an affidavit in the case filed by FBI special agent Brian Max. Manni allegedly would then bet big money on the opponent to "cover the spread." And clean up.

"Is it a huge problem? I wouldn't say that. But it's a continual problem," says Matt Heron, chief of the organized crime section at FBI headquarters in Washington. "It's out there. We know it's out there. Whether we can prove it is a different matter."

Shaving points might seem like a no-harm, no-foul way to make easy money, Heron says. But a college athlete risks his education, future career, even freedom.

Point-shaving is a federal crime. Any player caught shaving points permanently loses NCAA eligibility in all sports and can be arrested and prosecuted.

Just ask Stevin "Hedake" Smith, an ex-team captain of Arizona State who served nearly a year in prison in 1999-2000. He played briefly with the Dallas Mavericks early in 1997, but his NBA prospects disappeared after he pleaded guilty in late 1997 to conspiracy to commit sports bribery for shaving points in four games in 1994.

Some Las Vegas sports gambling experts are suspicious of the Toledo football team's performance in the '05 season. Lopsided betting to one side or the other of a line changes the point spread — and raises questions in the gambling community.

During that season, the lines moved by two points or more on seven games, says RJ Bell, president of Pregame.com. Each time, the bettors driving the changes won. "The odds of that happening randomly are 128-1 … which tells me these guys knew something."

The "betting patterns" on Toledo during the 2005 season became so suspicious that Nevada's State Gaming Control Board investigated two games, chief enforcement officer Jerry Markling says. After concluding there were no violations by state casinos, the board closed its investigation in December 2005.

McDougle was arraigned March 30 in U.S. District Court in Detroit on charges of participating in a bribery scheme to influence games. He has been suspended from the football team but is still enrolled at school, University of Toledo spokesman Larry Burns says.

The FBI says it is still gathering information to make its case against McDougle. Manni, 50, from the Detroit area, has not been charged.

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