Gambling industry, colleges swap blame for student betting

Laurence Arnold

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 9:07 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Boosters of the Nevada gambling industry and college athletic leaders blamed each other for the proliferation of illegal betting among college students.

In a hearing on a proposal to ban betting on college sports Wednesday, Nevada lawmakers accused the National Collegiate Athletic Association of seeking a scapegoat.

"The NCAA, this has been fun for them," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "It diverts attention from their incompetence."

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., said the NCAA's solution "is the legislative equivalent of an air ball - it simply misses the mark."

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said it is "an illegal bookie's dream."

The bill "would create an unfortunate and undue economic burden on thousands of Nevada's families whose livelihoods depend on the upstanding reputation of the casino-entertainment industry," Gibbons said.

Their arguments did not sway the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. John McCain. Since leaving the GOP presidential race, McCain has made a ban one of his main causes.

McCain, R-Ariz., said outlawing such betting - now legal only in Nevada - "will end a practice that has turned college athletes into objects to be bet upon, exposing them to unwarranted pressure, bribery and corruption."

Legislation that would ban such betting was introduced last month by Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. The bill was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it was given little chance to advance.

So McCain introduced the same legislation last week and had it assigned to his committee.

Charles Wethington, president of the University of Kentucky and chairman of the NCAA Executive Committee, told McCain's committee that colleges are trying to combat illegal betting.

He showed a public service announcement called "Don't Bet on It" and said the spot has aired 18 times during this month's NCAA men's college basketball tournament.

The Nevada gambling industry took in $2.3 billion in sports wagers in fiscal 1999, with 30 percent to 40 percent bet on college sports.

Congress last considered sports betting legislation nine years ago. The result was a law signed by President George Bush banning sports wagering in 47 states. In addition to Nevada, the exemptions were for Oregon, which allows betting on pro football through a lottery, and Delaware, which has not adopted sports betting despite a 1976 public vote approving it.

Jim Calhoun, men's basketball coach at the University of Connecticut, said a ban on college sports betting in Nevada could help persuade newspapers to stop publishing point spreads.

"I see this not as a panacea," Calhoun said of the legislation. "I see it as a beginning."

But Nevada backers called the legislation unfair and off track, an attempt to blame one state's casinos for the problems on college campuses nationwide.

Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., who lobbies for casinos as president of the American Gaming Association, said, "To ban college sports betting in Nevada to address this problem would be like shutting down Napa Valley to curb binge drinking on campus."

Bobby Siller, a former FBI agent who now is a member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said the proposed ban would drive more gambling underground and invite involvement by organized crime.