Columnist Benjamin Grove: More ammunition for McCain

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 5:39 a.m.

THREE WEEKS after a bizarre blackout promptly ended the UNLV-Wisconsin game Aug. 31, Sen. John McCain was still grinning.

In the last 2 1/2 years the maverick reformer and avid sports fan has taken on the gaming industry, pushing a bill that would outlaw betting on college sports in the one state where it's legal: Nevada. Influential gaming lobbyists and Nevada's small but vocal delegation in Congress have stifled the legislation, thwarting the tenacious McCain. The Arizona Republican insists the bill could help curb game-fixing, and generally decries the corruptive influence of gaming on college sports.

So when the lights went out at Sam Boyd Stadium, and conspiracy theorists surmised it was gambling-related, McCain got a good chuckle. He could hardly contain his amusement when I caught up with him last week on the underground Capitol tram.

"It was one of the most amazing things in the history of college athletics," McCain said, breaking into a smirk, his words dripping with sarcasm.

"These things happen all the time all over America," McCain said, insinuating that, of course, these things don't happen all over America -- they happen in Nevada.

It was such a coincidence, McCain said, that a blackout would bring the game to an abrupt end with 7 minutes and 41 seconds left to play.

The game was just shy of the 55-minute mark most casinos use to consider the game official, so all bets were off. Wagers were refunded; no payouts were made.

Nothing fishy there, McCain said, wearing a full grin now.

Mostly, McCain was just having fun with the story. McCain knows the authorities said the blackout was caused by a simple equipment failure -- not by some gambler who had pulled off a caper worthy of Nevada legend.

Still, McCain added, "There at least ought to be an investigation. Is the state gaming commission so under the thumb of the state's gaming interests that there won't be an investigation?" (Commissioners have said there isn't a shred of evidence to warrant one.)

One thing is clear: McCain still revels in his role as a thorn in the gaming industry's side. He remains adamant about someday passing his legislation that would close what he calls the "Las Vegas loophole."

But even McCain admits the bill's chances of passage are slim, at least for now.

The legislation last saw action in May 2001, when the Senate Commerce Committee (McCain was chairman at the time) passed it. McCain has tried to move the bill on the Senate floor but Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blocked it.

This year the bill collected dust as Congress wrestled with weightier issues. It didn't help when a leading House backer of the legislation, Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., announced he was leaving Congress this year; another bill supporter, Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has been distracted by his Senate race.

And the bill's catalyst, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, seems to have lost some of its passion. The NCAA didn't even lobby for the bill this year, and there's no real plan to push it next year, NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro said, offering a lukewarm endorsement, "If they re-introduce it again, we'll be supportive of it."

McCain told me it may take another game-fixing scandal to rock the world of sports before lawmakers are motivated to consider the legislation again.

College coaches tell McCain that another scandal is inevitable as long as gambling pervades campuses and seeps into athletic programs.

McCain still says betting on college kids is unseemly. And Nevada gives shady game-fixers a place to lay off bets, McCain has said.

Nevada, with its line-setting casinos, also creates an infrastructure that illegal gambling rings and campus bookies nationwide use as a template for their illicit operations, McCain says.

Nevada officials scoff at such claims and have long said the real problem is rampant illegal betting nationwide -- not the tiny (but lucrative) fraction of college sports bets made legally in Nevada.

"We'll try again," McCain vowed. "But it's very hard, especially with Harry Reid. It's very hard."