Stage set for battle on college betting

Benjamin Grove and Jeff German

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 11:06 a.m.

The stage was set today in Washington for debate on a college sports betting bill that takes dead aim at Nevada, the state's members of Congress said.

"It's an absolute tragedy that there are those who want to pit the NCAA against legal gambling institutions in Nevada," Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said. "We just want a fair playing field in all this."

Gibbons and Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley and Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both D-Nev., are mustering forces with the powerful gaming lobby to fend off the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which is pushing the bill that would ban betting on high school, college and Olympic sports.

The Nevada members of Congress say the bill unfairly targets Nevada, where casinos reap millions of dollars in legal bets made on college games. They say the real problem is with illegal gambling in other states and on college campuses where point-shaving scandals and stories of "student bookies" are surfacing.

"The unfortunate consequences of this poorly thought out legislation go directly to Nevada," Gibbons said, vowing a fight. "As my good friend Mills Lane says, 'Let's get it on.' There is a tremendous amount at stake and a lot at risk for Nevada. We're prepared to take this to the mat."

The two sides in the debate will trade volleys in the next few days.

Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were prepared to unveil their betting ban legislation at a highly publicized event today on Capitol Hill. They sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to the other members of the House, some of whom rely on casino money for campaigns. The letter said the betting ban bill "will have minimal financial and economic impact on the casino industry."

"We must protect the integrity of high school and college athletics and reduce the unseemly influences that gambling has on our student athletes," Brownback said in a written statement. "There have been more point-shaving scandals at our colleges and universities in the 1990s than in every other decade before it combined."

Leahy's statement said, "If we act soon, we also have the opportunity to put this into place before the next Olympic games."

In response, Reid plans to introduce his own bill this week, which would require the Justice Department to study the problem of college gaming. Specifically, the inquiry would focus on what the NCAA is doing to police its own 1,150 campuses to crack down on student wagering.

In the House, Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tim Roemer, D-Ind., will introduce their own college betting ban bill, expected in the next few days. Gibbons plans to counter it with a bill "almost identical" to Reid's legislation.

Berkley, who served as a university regent, said the NCAA was using Nevada as a scapegoat for its problems.

"This is an organization awash in money and making millions of dollars because of student athletes and big time sports," Berkley said. "They have done nothing, nothing, to curb the excesses that have developed in college athletics."

Bryan said, "This is feel-good legislation that does nothing to address the problem of illegal problem gambling."

Bryan said the war of rhetoric would be fierce.

"Our greatest concern is that this could come down to, 'Do I go with the NCAA, the alumni associations and the universities or do I sympathize with the Nevada sports books?' That is a difficult proposition for us," Bryan said.

Gambling representatives will be watching the battle closely and firing a few shots of their own. The Washington-based American Gaming Association's Frank Fahrenkopf will be leading one charge. He said the NCAA's case is weak, even backed by high-profile and respected college coaches.

"(Penn State football coach Joe) Paterno and other coaches and college presidents can just reinforce the fact that there's a college gambling problem," Fahrenkopf said.

"No one can establish a nexus between the illegal gambling activity on college campuses across this country and the legal sports book industry in Nevada."

Fahrenkopf's Nevada counterpart, Bill Bible, president of the Nevada Resort Association, promised a "moving strategy," to counter NCAA arguments.

"It's going to deal with the issues as they develop," Bible said.

Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn was not available for comment Monday or today. He described the bill as "dumb" and called its sponsors "idiots" in Monday's issue of Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

NCAA spokeswoman Doris Dixon declined to make any statements in advance of today's press conference.

"We're going to do this all live," she said.

One Nevadan expected to testify in a committee hearing is Nancy Price, former Nevada University Regent and a sports betting foe. Price flew to Washington last week to attend Brownback and Leahy's betting ban press conference, which was rescheduled to today because of snow.

"Just the fact that you condone betting on kids is in my mind a bad thing," Price said. "Do you bet on high school games? On pee wee league? Where do you draw the line? Thirty years ago, the idea of gambling on college games was unthinkable. Now in Nevada, it's unthinkable that you could not bet on them."