Columnist Dean Juipe: McCain bill to challenge Nevada again

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 | 10 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

For a sports fan living in Las Vegas, the greatest fear isn't that the city will never acquire a legitimate professional team or rise to major-league status. It's that the federal government will stick its nose where it's not wanted and find a way to ban sports gaming.

Such a turn of events was once thought to be preposterous, but no more.

Already targeted: gambling on collegiate sporting events.

Nevada has successfully beaten back a couple of diligent efforts to ban college wagering, and by the looks of things the state will have to continue to meet this challenge on something of an annual basis.

What will make the task especially trying in 2003 is the change on the national political landscape that has led to the Republicans regaining control of the U.S. Senate. As a result, when the all-important Senate Commerce Committee convenes next month it will have Arizona's John McCain back in as chairman in place of Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada.

With Reid at the helm in 2002, the Commerce Committee was deadlocked with a 10-10 vote on a McCain-sponsored bill that would outlaw betting on college sports in Nevada (and everywhere else for that matter, although it's only available in Nevada). The tie vote allowed the bill to stall and not reach the Senate floor.

McCain has already let it be known that he will reintroduce the bill in the next session, which will force Nevada to spend its money and resources and lobby against its passage.

This topic was front and center last week in Reno at the Governor's Conference on Tourism.

What's with McCain, anyway? Why does he, more so than any of his colleagues on this particular subject, feel the need to tell adults how they can spend their money?

What he and those who favor his bill fail to take into account is that what's bet legally on college sports in Nevada is but a small fraction of what's wagered on those same games illegally around the country. And a law that bans gambling on college sports across the board won't do anything to lessen the illegal wagering, while it will take money from Nevada's most important industry.

It's clear that any ban on college sports betting in Nevada will only increase the amount bet underground, which only adds to the worthlessness of McCain's bill.

Nonetheless, he's undeterred and is apt to keep working -- and calling in favors -- on this bill until he passes from the national scene. As such, Nevada has its work cut out when it comes to protecting an entertainment option that many tourists and more than a few locals enjoy.

If there is a hidden variable that may work to Nevada's advantage next year, it's the change at the top of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. A man who supported McCain's bill, Cedric Dempsey, is retiring as the NCAA president and will be replaced next month by Indiana president Myles Brand, who is thought to have a more moderate (and realistic) point of view.

In addition, the team of lobbyists that represents the NCAA has undergone some revision of late, and that, too, may be of some value to Nevada.

Yet the challenge remains and McCain is a formidable foe, blind as he is to state's rights and inclined as he is to make Washington take this strange interest in Nevada.