Ensign, Gibbons to unveil own NCAA betting bill

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001 | 11:32 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's four-member congressional delegation today planned to launch a key strike in a battle against a bill that would ban betting on college sports in Nevada casinos.

Nevada's lawmakers, led by Republicans Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons, planned to introduce legislation today designed to undercut Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and John McCain, R-Ariz., who with House allies aim to outlaw gambling on college sports in Nevada.

"We're going to be on the offensive," Ensign said.

Brownback and McCain first unveiled their legislation last year. The bill stalled, but they vow to reintroduce it this year, possibly in March during the national college basketball tournament in an effort to draw publicity.

Now Nevada lawmakers hope to draw support in Congress away from McCain with a bill they crafted that takes aim at illegal gambling nationwide -- in contrast to the McCain-Brownback bill, which targets legal betting in Nevada.

"This is not just an alternative, it's a good bill," Ensign said. "This actually does something about the problem. The other bill is just window dressing."

Nevada is the only state that allows gambling on college sports. McCain and Brownback, along with Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tim Roemer, D-Ind., and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, say outlawing bets on college sports in Nevada would make it harder for "campus bookies" to do business. That would decrease gambling at colleges nationwide and curb game fixing orchestrated by bookies and bettors, they say.

Nonsense, Nevada lawmakers say. The real problem is widespread illegal gambling outside Nevada, they say. Their bill would:

The Nevadans are assembling key allies. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said 17 Democrats agreed to co-sponsor the bill, including House Democratic Whip Rep. David Bonior of Michigan and Rep. John Conyers, also of Michigan. Conyers is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee where the betting bills will originate.

"We are already gathering signatures and support for this common-sense approach to the issue of illegal sports gambling," Berkley said. "If in fact the genuine interest behind the NCAA legislation is to stem the tide of illegal gambling and not punish Nevada, this legislation is the appropriate one to support."

As a matter of simple strategy, Republicans Gibbons and Ensign will formally introduce the bill in the Republican-controlled Congress, Nevada sources said.

Nevada lawmakers last year hastily introduced a similar bill that also called for study of illegal gambling nationwide, but won little Republican support. They hope Ensign, who this year replaced Democrat Richard Bryan, will collect Republicans co-sponsors for the bill.

"I think I should be able to do that," Ensign said. "What I'm trying to do right now is build relationships. After you build relationships is when you begin to talk specifics."

The betting ban proposal -- said to be popular among a majority in Congress -- won quick approval in McCain's Commerce Committee last year. The House Judiciary Committee also passed the bill. But the bill was never debated or voted on by the full House or Senate. Bryan and Reid blocked the bill on the Senate floor.