Defense bill may carry betting ban

Benjamin Grove

Friday, June 9, 2000 | 11:14 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., have signed up to attach anti-betting amendments to a Department of Defense bill.

That may seem an odd vehicle for gambling legislation. But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who controls much of the action on the Senate floor, this week allowed "non-germane" amendments to be added to the defense reauthorization bill, which approves spending on military programs.

More than 200 possible amendments are now pending. The Senate on Thursday approved a campaign finance amendment, rejected a patients bill of rights amendment and then temporarily set the overall bill aside.

But McCain and Brownback are eyeing the opportunity to push for legislation that bans betting on college sports in Nevada casinos. They think legal betting in Nevada leads to game-fixing, rampant illegal bet-making and crooked "campus bookies" at colleges and universities nationwide.

Nevada's delegation has vowed to fight the legislation, saying it won't accomplish McCain's goal. The legislation will only increase illegal betting, they say.

"This does nothing to solve the problem," Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said Thursday. "On the merits, we win. But this is a feel-good piece of legislation and so people are inclined to vote for it, especially because their university presidents and college coaches are urging support. That makes it very difficult for us."

McCain is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which passed a free-standing betting ban bill that he authored. McCain has said that attaching the legislation as an amendment to another bill might be the best way to pass it.

"We have to be alert," Bryan said. "Clearly, there is an attempt to bring it to the Senate floor at some point. The Majority Leader (Lott) has made a commitment to McCain to bring it up sometime this month."

Bryan vowed, 'We're going to make it difficult for them to get a vote on it."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the assistant Democratic Senate leader, has reserved amendment slots of his own that could be used to sink McCain's amendment, Reid spokesman David Cherry said.

Meanwhile the betting ban bill is gathering steam on the other side of Congress. The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on the bill for Tuesday. Nevada's delegation is expected to testify alongside several gaming officials.

The American Gaming Association, the leading gambling lobby group in Washington, plans to highlight a recent letter from the Newspaper Association of America to the committee that says newspapers likely will continue to publish point spreads, even if sports betting is made illegal in Nevada.

The bill's supporters have said those point spreads fuel illegal gambling and likely would disappear if college sports gambling was outlawed in Nevada.

Reps. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are the bill's primary House supporters.

"This is the responsible thing to do," Roemer wrote this week in a column in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper. "It will help protect the integrity of amateur sports from the growing and increasingly negative influence of sports betting."

Graham was quoted in the Sporting News newspaper this week saying, "With that kind of money out there, that's just too much pressure for a young person to miss a free throw they might make or drop a ball they might catch."

Others scheduled to testify in favor of the bill: highly respected former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith and Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith.

"This is a star-struck body," Graham said in the Sporting News. "Politically, this will make all the difference."

Nevada Gaming Commission chairman Brian Sandoval is another scheduled witness. He said he planned to stress that sports betting in Nevada is tightly regulated against corruption and sensitive to game-fixing schemes.

"The problem that should be dealt with is the illegal gambling," said Sandoval, a Reno lawyer. Sandoval said he did not know what to expect from the House Judiciary Committee.

"My impression was that the (Senate) Committee heard our arguments and moved forward despite them," Sandoval said.

Joining Sandoval will be Bobby Siller, member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, who investigated illegal gambling, bookies and organized crime. He plans to tell the committee to focus on illegal gamblers, unregulated Internet gambling sites, and gambling programs for college students.

"People are going to bet on sports no matter what," Siller said. "This will drive it further underground. I fail to see the wisdom or the logic in this."

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., spoke to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and said "he is very receptive to listening to our side of this issue. I'm hopeful they will make a reasonable decision."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she plans to urge support for an alternative bill that requires more study of illegal gambling and provisions that crack down on illegal gamblers.

"The NCAA has done nothing -- nothing -- to curb illegal sports betting activity on campuses," Berkley said. "They just signed a $6 billion television contract of which not a penny is going to programs designed to help students with gambling problems."