Betting ban bill delayed by weather

Jeff German and Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2000 | 11:50 a.m.

Sun reporter Richard N. Velotta contributed to this report.

The blizzard in Washington forced the cancellation of today's news conference announcing the introduction of a bill to outlaw betting on college sports.

But the two sponsors of the bill, Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., are proceeding with plans to submit the bill this week or next.

"We'd like to introduce the bill as soon as we can, and if we can't hold the press conference until next week, so be it," Jonathan Lamy, a Leahy spokesman, said.

The legislation is backed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which sees it as crucial to its efforts to curb illegal gambling on its 1,150 U.S. campuses.

The casino industry, led by its Washington lobby, the American Gaming Association, opposes the bill, which targets Nevada's $2.3 billion sports-betting industry.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to introduce an alternative that will delay the NCAA's proposal until a study of illegal gambling is conducted by the Justice Department.

"We want the Justice Department to provide information on the extent of illegal gambling and what (it's) doing about it," Reid said this week. Casino-industry leaders contend the NCAA should be doing more to attack illegal gambling on college campuses before going after Nevada's well-regulated industry.

Reid and Nevada's other Democratic senator, Richard Bryan, said they face an uphill battle against the NCAA bill because the state stands alone. In Las Vegas on Tuesday, Mirage Resorts Vice President Alan Feldman spoke out against the legislation during Preview 2000, an annual business event sponsored by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce.

"There's no greater threat (to the casino industry) than the attack on our sports books," said Feldman, who noted the irony of addressing the crowd beneath the display of NCAA banners marking UNLV's basketball successes. Nevada's sports-book operators would be caught in a broad net cast by the NCAA to catch people gambling illegally on college sports, he said.

"We thought we were going to be in a partnership with the NCAA to solve the problem of illegal gambling," Feldman said. "Instead they were drafting terms for Nevada's surrender."