Lott assures betting bill is on agenda

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has signaled he intends to clear a path for a Senate vote on a bill that would ban betting on college sports.

The bill could surface for debate as early as next week, or the week of July 10, said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Reid said Lott, who controls much of the action on the Senate floor, intends to fulfill a commitment to Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan. Lott told them they could pursue their bills that would ban betting on college sports in Nevada, which would hurt casino profits.

"It's a bill that Sen. Lott would really like to see done," a Lott spokesman said Wednesday.

McCain, Brownback and other bill supporters say the legislation would curb game fixing and rampant betting by college students.

Nevada's members in Congress strongly disagree and have battled the bill since its inception this year.

"We'll be ready as we always are," Reid said today.

The Senate has been busy with appropriations bills and a variety of other matters lately. Meanwhile McCain and Brownback have searched for a way to force a vote on the betting ban bill.

Both considered attaching the bill as an amendment to an unrelated defense spending bill. On Wednesday it became clear they had abandoned that strategy, likely at the request of Lott, who would prefer to see the betting ban legislation as a free-standing bill.

Reid said, "Our strategy doesn't change. It doesn't make it any easier for us. It doesn't make it any harder, either."

Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., could filibuster before the bill is debated in an attempt to stop it.

Bryan said the bill likely would pass by a wide margin if it came down to a vote on an unamended version of the legislation.

It's also possible other senators might try to attach non-relevant amendments, which could sink the bill in the end.

"That would be very helpful to us," said Bryan, who intends to attach amendments of his own. "That would take time and the question is, how much time is Sen. Lott prepared to allocate to this bill?"

The Senate still has pressing appropriations bills to complete and just nine weeks of work left this year.