Five athletes implicated in the Iowa State sports betting scandal have resolved their criminal cases by pleading guilty to a reduced charge of underage gambling.

Local news outlet, KTIV reports that Iowa State players Hunter Dekkers and Jake Remsburg, and former Iowa State football player Dodge Sauser all took the aforementioned course of action. So too did former State kicker Aaron Blom and baseball player Gehrig Christensen. Each individual will pay a fine of $645 and receive no additional sentencing.

The previous charge was “Tampering with Records”. KTIV adds an explanation as follows: “for engaging in a scheme to disguise their identities and manipulate online transactions in order to create the appearance that the transactions were made by family members and not them”.

While criminal charges have now been dropped, action from the NCAA on potential football eligibility, and therefore the athletes’ futures hang in the balance. A ruling has yet to be made.

The second batch of athletes and staff charged have yet to learn their fate, although one would assume it will be similar. Where it could be more severe, is where athletes were found to have wagered on matches in which they have competed. Dekkers was the highest profile, being the Iowa State projected starting quarterback for the 2023/24 collegiate season.

At the time, Iowa State said in a statement: “Since becoming aware of potential NCAA eligibility issues related to sports wagering by several of our student-athletes back in May, Iowa State University has been actively working to address these issues with the involved student-athletes, and that process remains ongoing. We will continue to support our student-athletes as our compliance staff works with the NCAA to sort out questions surrounding their future eligibility for athletics competition.”

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission who are responsible for the regulation of Iowa mobile sports betting has already sought to push through reform. The reforms are in direct response to the ongoing scandal, issuing a ‘notice of intended action’ that will place extra requirements on operators and with specific wording surrounding account sharing and underage wagering.