Who is Hunter Dekkers? All about Iowa State QB who got involved in underage gambling investigations

Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers has been in the news recently after being implicated in an underage gambling sting operation.

Dekkers is a 22-year-old quarterback who redshirted his freshman season as an understudy to NFL quarterback Brock Purdy. He found himself in the middle of an investigation into underage gambling after getting the starting job at Iowa State.

The 6-foot-3, 206-lb QB is a Hawarden, Iowa native, where he grew up on a cattle farm alongside his parents, Jami and Scott Dekkers, and sisters Maci and Addi.

Dekkers played several sports at West Sioux High School, including football, basketball and baseball. He set Iowa high school records in most passing yards (10,628) and touchdown passes (126).

Considered a four-star recruit, Dekkers chose Iowa State over Purdue, Kansas State and Indiana.

The Story County Attorney's office filed the criminal gambling violations charges in early August when Dekkers was accused of placing 26 bets involving various Iowa State sporting events.

The legal age for gambling in Iowa is 21, and Dekkers reportedly placed 297 bets while still underage with his mother's help to hide his identity. The activity was traced back to his phone used while on campus grounds.

He was charged with placing 366 bets using his DraftKings betting account, totaling $2,799. The most serious of those allegations was a game in which Dekkers was involved.

It was alleged that in 2021, Hunter Dekkers placed a bet on an Iowa game where he was the backup to quarterback Brock Purdy.

Dekkers was also further accused of tampering by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations.

The Weinhardt Law Firm, which represents Hunter Dekkers, then released a statement on behalf of their client:

"Hunter Dekkers denies the criminal charge brought against him. He will plead not guilty to that charge because he is in fact not guilty of that charge. This charge attempts to criminalize a daily fact of American life. Millions of people share online accounts of all kinds every day."

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Is Hunter Dekkers the only athlete accused of underage gambling?

Hunter Dekkers is not the only student-athlete who was charged with underage gambling.

Dekkers, alongside three Iowa State and two Iowa prospects, pleaded to a lesser charge of underage gambling. The aggravated misdemeanor they had been charged with carried a maximum penalty of two years.

Defensive end Eyioma Uwazurike, former offensive lineman Dodge Sauser and wrestler Paniro Johnson were all implicated in tampering with records related to underage gambling.

On the Iowa side, baseball player Gehrig Christensen, offensive lineman Jacob Remsburg and former kicker Aaron Blom were the student-athletes implicated.

The reduced charge carries a penalty of $645, which brings a close to a widespread dragnet sting that netted several student-athletes.

Attorney Mark Weinhardt, who represents Sauser, Dekkers and Remsburg, made a statement on the dropping of the charges.

"The original records tampering charge against these young men never fit this case, either legally or factually," Weinhardt said.

"Hunter, Jake and Dodge are not and never were guilty of that charge. The charge has nothing to do with gambling. Other than the fact that Hunter, Jake, and Dodge placed some bets before they turned 21, nothing about those bets was a crime under Iowa law."

The case against the student-athletes has now been closed, and fans of the teams they represent wait for the next steps in their careers.