Lott continues efforts on college sports betting ban

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Sept. 8, 2000 | 11:43 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., on Thursday again showed persistence in his attempt to pass legislation that bans gambling on college sports.

The bill would deal a blow to Nevada casino sports books, and the state's senators -- again -- leapt to block the bill.

The Senate has more pressing issues to tackle before its year-end adjournment in October, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. The Senate has spending bills to pass and should debate minimum wage and prescription drug legislation, he said.

"The effort to force this body to consider a questionable piece of legislation, which is a ban on legal gambling on college games, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of priorities, in this senator's view," Reid said on the Senate floor.

Lott called for a two-hour debate and vote on the bill on or before Sept. 26. But he needed a unanimous consent from the other senators, and Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., objected.

"This legislation would plunge a dagger into the back of Nevada's major industry," Bryan said. "And it serves no useful purpose."

Lott brought the bill forward on behalf of one of its leading supporters, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. Brownback said he was ready to debate the bill "any time at any place."

Brownback refuted the notion the bill wasn't a national priority.

"There is a hue and cry across the country. Every college in America has asked for this legislation because they are having problems on their college campuses with betting on their athletes," Brownback said.

Brownback and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pushed the bill's passage through their Senate Commerce Committee this year. They say they are acting on behalf of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the advocate behind the bill.

NCAA officials and college leaders say the legislation will take Nevada casinos out of widening gambling circles on college campuses. They say the bill will make it tougher for campus bookies to place bets in Nevada, thereby curbing widespread illegal betting by college students.

Student athletes will then be less likely to take part in point-shaving schemes led by student bookies, NCAA officials said.

But Nevada senators refute that. Bryan repeated a now-familiar phrase that the legislation was an "illegal bookie's dream" and would not curb illegal betting.

The bill is likely to pass if it ever came to a Senate vote. It was unclear if Lott and Brownback would continue to push the bill this month. If they do not, they are likely to try again next year.

"I'll be there if they do," Reid said.