Benny Silman of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

is a former student turned

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

who was

jailed A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

for masterminding a

point shaving In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to change the final score of a game without the intention of changing who wins. This is typically done by players colluding with gamblers to prevent a team fr ...

scandal A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way a ...

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

Career

In 1998, Silman pleaded guilty to charges that he

bribed Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official duty, to act contrary ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

players Stevin "Hedake" Smith and Isaac Burton to ensure the Sun Devils did not "cover the allotted

spread Spread may refer to: Places * Spread, West Virginia Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Spread'' (film), a 2009 film. * ''$pread'', a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers * "Spread", a song by OutKast from their 2003 album ''Speakerboxxx/T ...

" in four end-of-season basketball games during the 1994 season. He was sentenced to just under four years in a

federal prison A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for people who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), people considered dangerous (Brazil), or those sen ...

after pleading guilty to fixing Arizona State basketball games in exchange for money from

gamblers Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...

. A total of $568,000 was wagered by professional sports handicappers on the approval of Silman. Following his release in 2002, Silman has conducted seminars with

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

s to warn them about the dangers of gambling and has written articles for such publications as

Maxim magazine ''Maxim'' (stylized in all caps) is an international men's magazine, devised and launched in the United Kingdom in 1995, but based in New York City since 1997. It is known for its photography of actors, singers and female models whose careers ar ...

. Silman claims that he was coerced into perpetuating his scheme longer than planned by members of

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

. His story was made into a movie titled ''Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie'' with

David Krumholtz David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978) is an American actor. Krumholtz is best known for portraying Bernard in ''The Santa Clause'' franchise (1994–present), Michael Eckman in '' 10 Things I Hate About You'' (1999), Goldstein in the '' Harold & K ...

playing Silman.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Silman, Benny Living people Arizona State University alumni Arizona State Sun Devils men's basketball Sportspeople involved in betting scandals Year of birth missing (living people) Scandals in Arizona

Career

See also

References

External links