NCAA is confident it has gaming industry on heels

Jeff German and Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

A top NCAA official predicted today that the casino industry's latest efforts won't derail a congressional push to ban betting on college sports.

Bill Saum, NCAA director of agent and gambling activities, told the Sun that Wednesday's high-level gaming summit with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is a sign the industry is worried about his organization's campaign.

"What it indicates is that they're very concerned that we are well on our way to being successful with this legislation (banning college-sports betting)," Saum said.

"I think we've heard time and again from our legislators that if this issue would get to the floor, the bill would pass. That means that obviously the American people believe that this is a good bill because they've expressed that to their congressmen and congresswomen across the United States."

Saum said he believes that the NCAA is on the right track and that the casino industry in Nevada is throwing up "smoke screens" to cloud the real issue.

"We don't view this as a political battle," Saum said. "We view this as what's right and wrong with college athletics. Fundamentally, it's inappropriate for adults to wager on young people."

On Tuesday Reid -- the Senate's assistant Democratic leader -- conducted a teleconference from Washington with members of the American Gaming Association in Nevada.

The industry's elite, including Desert Inn owner Steve Wynn, heard Reid and AGA President and lead Washington lobbyist Frank Fahrenkopf make a pitch for a comprehensive legislative and public-relations offensive to step up the heat on the NCAA.

Reid urged the gaming executives to take a more pro-active role in the fight, a strategy that would involve a greater financial commitment from the industry.

Afterward Fahrenkopf and industry leaders were tight-lipped on the summit.

But well-placed gaming sources said the pitch did not result in any major action on the part of the AGA board.

The board, however, did vote to ask Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson, who has influential Republican contacts in Washington, to join the group.

Adelson, a billionaire with strong political opinions, has been kept out of the loop of the AGA's political agenda in the past.

"We have to make sure Nevada's No. 1 industry agrees with our approach," Reid said this morning. "And we want to have some idea of what they are doing."

The rest of Nevada's congressional delegation, meanwhile, also has been working hard to put together a comprehensive strategy to battle the NCAA legislation.

As this year's Congress sputters to a close, all four Nevada lawmakers intend to rely on a more intense, highly organized and sharply focused lobbying campaign involving high-powered casino executives, Democratic sources said.

To stifle the betting ban legislation being trumpeted by Republican Sens. Sam Brownback, of Kansas, and John McCain, of Arizona, the Nevadans also plan to again push alternative bills early in the session. Those bills are aimed at cracking down on illegal gambling in America, not legal betting in Nevada.

"We've got a multifaceted approach," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who is planning new meetings with key House Republicans on the issue. "We know the opposition is going to be strong, and we're ready to fight."

Today Reid and Nevada's new Republican Sen.-elect John Ensign emerged from their first Capitol Hill meeting pledging to work together on gaming issues from their opposite partisan sides.

Reid said the two were in "total agreement" on their evolving strategy on the betting ban bill.

"John can talk to the Republicans better than I can," Reid said.

In an earlier interview, Ensign said the bill was "completely misunderstood" by lawmakers on the Hill.

"It may be popular, but it's not a big deal (to senators)," Ensign said. "It's not something they would die for. It's a big deal to me and Sen. Reid."

Among the strategies under consideration by Nevada lawmakers:

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she has already won some Democratic allies on the key House Judiciary Committee, including ranking committee Democrat John Conyers, of Michigan, who with Berkley toured Las Vegas sports books in November. Gibbons said he plans a meeting with incoming Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

Betting-ban legislation next year may have more steam in the Senate than the House. The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill this year, but it never came to a full House vote and passed only after some Democratic committee members argued against it.

The bill has not been voted on in the full Senate because Reid and departing Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., blocked it.

Berkley, Gibbons and Reid said Ensign is in a pivotal position to influence Republicans.

Ensign agreed Nevada now has a "Republican in the room to raise a voice."