By Tony Batt
lasvegas.com Gaming Wire
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., reintroduced his bill Thursday to prohibit Nevada sports books from taking bets on college games, and he plans a fast track to get the legislation to final Senate votes within a month.
The Senate Commerce Committee, which McCain chairs, has scheduled an April 26 hearing on the bill as well as alternative legislation offered by the Nevada congressional delegation.
McCain plans to schedule committee votes on both bills one week later, committee sources and lobbyists said. The sessions are expected to attract national media attention drawn by the topic and by McCain, who has become a Senate celebrity.
"I am renewing my effort to finally close the ’Las Vegas Loophole’ that transforms student athletes into objects to be bet upon," McCain said in a news release.
"Adding unwarranted pressure from corrupting influences to the pressures that these intensely competitive young people already feel is unacceptable,” he said. "Congress must act to close the loophole that allows one state to serve as a national clearinghouse for betting on our youth."
McCain’s bill, which has strong backing by the NCAA, is similar to legislation he sponsored last year that passed the Senate Commerce Committee but never made it to the Senate floor for a final vote.
The legislation would outlaw the sponsorship, operation, advertisement promotion, licensing or authorization of any type of gambling on amateur sports including lotteries and sweepstakes. It also directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish a grant program to pay for educational substance abuse prevention and intervention programs.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, who introduced last year’s NCAA bill, issued a statement Thursday saying he will team up again with McCain this year.
"My continuing efforts on this issue are in direct response to the recommendation made by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which in 1999 concluded a two-year study on the impact of legalized gambling in our country," Brownback said.
Brownback said the federal gambling commission "recognized the potential harm of legalized gambling by stating that sports gambling ’can serve as a gateway behavior for adolescent gamblers, and can devastate individuals and careers.'"
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who serves with McCain on the commerce committee, said he "will fight this aggressively with every resource that we have."
Last year, McCain pushed the NCAA bill through the commerce committee on a procedural voice vote despite the objections of former Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.
Ensign said he is taking precautions to make sure the gambling industry is not steamrolled in this year’s hearing.
"I think it very much helps having a chairman in the same party," he said. "So far, (McCain) has been absolutely straight with me. We will get to present our bill and have our fair share of witnesses."
The Nevada bill, offered almost two months ago, calls for stricter enforcement of existing gambling laws and a national study of illegal gambling rather than an outright ban on college gambling.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who hopes to testify at the April 26 hearing, described the McCain-Brownback bill as a “fig leaf for the NCAA to cover their problems.”
"They have these huge multibillion dollar contracts with the television networks, and yet they do nothing in the form of public information or anythiing else to prevent illegal gambling," Reid said.
Reid declined to say what he would do as the Senate Democratic whip if the NCAA bill is sent to the Senate floor. Last year, Reid and Bryan successfully objected to efforts by Brownback and McCain to proceed with a floor vote.
Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association, called the McCain-Brownback bill a misguided approach that attempts to absolve the NCAA of any responsibility to police itself.
Fahrenkopf noted this year’s bill omits two provisions from last year’s legislation. The provisions called for a ban on NCAA corporate sponsors from conducting sweepstakes on games and a requirement for colleges to report gambling crimes and inform students that sports gambling is illegal.
"By this omission, the NCAA is asking the federal government to place blame on others for its own problems while refusing to accept any measure that might require the organization itself or its members to address illegal gambling," Fahrenkopf said in a news release.
McCain’s bill echoes a House bill introduced March 15 by Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tim Roemer, D-Ind. The Graham-Roemer bill has 26 co-sponsors so far compared to 76 for a Nevada alternative proposed by Reps. Jim Gibbons and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Five of the Nevada co-sponsors in the House also are supporters of the Graham-Roemer bill.
The Senate version of the Nevada alternative has five supporters besides Ensign and Reid. They include Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo; Thomas Carper, D-Del.; Mike Crapo, R-Idaho and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.