MOSTLY what Phog Allen was talking
about was Madison Square Garden.
where the biggest basketball business in
America is being carried on every winter
by Ned Irish. The facts are that hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars are ex-
changing hands on the results of the
Garden winners and where there is. tnat
much involved someone is going to get
approached. College gambling is not a
haphazard affair participated in by a few
track bookies during the off season ; it is
a big time racket all by itself. These
odds often quoting the prices the
gamblers are offering are not set by guess |
work and too often they are set by in-
formation not available to the public. |

Gambling in college sports has grown
to such proportions there is now a cen-
tral clearing house known to the trade
as the ‘‘Minneapolis House.’ It is |
known among the touts as a reliable
trading firm dealing in sports information
and betting’ prices, and bookies
pay for the information they get
from the Minneapolis House just
as they would pay for a pair of
boots at Montgomery Ward’s. This
house collects sports ——- all
over the country and sets prices and
wholesales information on sports events
throughout the nation. They work

- through professional agents or dope col-
lectors and naturally the: best bet is to
have someone on the teams giving them
the dope, or second best someone on
the college campus,

NED Irish, the Garden basketball mag-

nate, has made an effort to run the
gamblers out of the Garden, but thé fact
is, if he stamped out gambling he would
stamp out a great deal of Garden basket-
ball. Not all of those 17,000 people were
at the Garden the other night because
either St. Francis or Muhlenberg were
dear to their hearts. They were there for
the same reason they go to the horse
races—and that ain’t to watch the nags
run.

The hardest comment to answer about
such gambling is, ‘‘So what?’’ But it
is true that gambling makes for a bad
smell and dishonesty. Judge Landis did
a good job of keeping professional base-
ball divorced from the professional
bettors and it might be a good idea if
the colleges went at the business of
wiping the gamblers out of college
athletics.