An American college basketball player who lost $600 gambling online will not be disciplined because he lost the money playing poker, not betting on sporting events.

According to media reports, Nick Calathes, a guard on the University of Florida basketball team in Gainesville, Florida, USA, was investigated by the school’s athletic department, after rumors swirled on campus that he had run up a large debt gambling online.

The athletic department found no evidence of wrongdoing, however, because rules set down by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing body of U.S. college sports, prohibit athletes from wagering on sporting events but not on poker, media reports said. =A0 Asked to comment on the controversy, University of Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan told reporters: “The only thing I’m going to say is the unfortunate part in all this is nobody on our team has done anything wrong. It’s amazing to me that stories can actually be written or talked about when someone’s done nothing wrong.

“We heard the rumors and we reacted to the rumors, responded to them, talked to Nick, talked to the team. We handled the whole situation. To me, it’s not even a story. There’s no story. Nobody did anything wrong.”

Calathes told reporters: “I did nothing wrong. I talked to coach Donovan, I talked to the school and there’s no problems. I’ll be here for the whole season.”

Calathes, a sophomore, played in Friday’s season-opening game against the University of Toledo, in Gainesville.

The University of Florida won the game, 80-58, and Calathes scored 16 points.

This is not the first time a University of Florida basketball player has felt heat for gambling.

In 2001, Teddy Dupay, also a guard, was kicked off the University of Florida basketball team after he wagered on sporting events.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)