Colts’ Ex-QB Schlichter Charged With Gambling

INDIANAPOLIS —  Art Schlichter, who was banned from pro football for a year because of his betting activities, was arrested today on a charge of unlawful gambling. The former Colts quarterback was said by police to have bet more than $200,000 on football and baseball games late last year.

Schlichter, 26, was among 13 people charged in a series of gambling arrests by city police.

Police Chief Paul A. Annee said records seized indicated that Schlichter wagered on professional and college football and pro baseball.

Schlichter, the former Ohio State University star selected in the first round of the National Football League draft in 1982, missed the 1983 season while serving a one-year league suspension for gambling. The Colts were then in Baltimore.

Schlichter at the time said his gambling had put him “on the path to total self-destruction.”

“I have not only been a compulsive gambler for too long now, it made me a compulsive liar,” he said.

He later underwent treatment in an effort to break his habit. He recently has been lecturing on how he finally overcame it.

Schlichter was reinstated for the 1984 season after a meeting with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and moved with the Colts to Indianapolis, starting in five games. The Colts released him after the fifth game of the 1985 season.

Schlichter turned himself in to Indianapolis authorities early today and was released on his own recognizance after being booked.