By TONY BATT
lasvegas.com GAMING WIRE
WASHINGTON -- The intensity of the debate over whether college sports betting should be banned in Nevada displayed itself before a packed congressional hearing Thursday.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., walked out in response to a comment delivered by another senator, while a Harvard University expert on gambling addiction was dismissed as a hired gun of the casino industry.
Seventeen witnesses testified during a three-hour hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on legislation by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that would
make it illegal for Nevada sports books to accept wagers on college games.
McCain and his allies, including the NCAA, argued that legal gambling is corrosive to students and athletes. Nevada officials and witnesses recommended by the casino industry said the bill would have no effect on gambling, and may increase it.
The hearing set the stage for a committee vote next week on the betting ban,
a McCain aide said.
Only a handful of committee members attended the hearing, but the room was so filled with observers that Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., had to stand. Nevada lawmakers have described the legislation as the state's No. 1 priority in Congress this year.
The tone was set by the leadoff witness, Reid, the Senate's Democratic whip, who flatly told McCain that his legislation will be dead without Reid's high-profile support.
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, a McCain bill co-sponsor, offered Reid a sarcastic thanks.
As Reid wrapped up his comments, Brownback asked him if he would talk to the
Nevada Gaming Commission and Nevada Gaming Control Board about removing Kansas teams from the Las Vegas betting line.
After a slight pause, Reid shot back, "Sam, I think your question is silly, and I am not going to answer it," and then left. Brownback arched his eyebrows in apparent surprise.
At another point, McCain and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., bickered over whether Nevada sports books tipped off the NCAA to a point shaving scandal at Arizona State in 1994.
"There was no uncovering of this scandal at ASU by any gaming authority in
the state of Nevada," McCain said.
Ensign then cited a Fox Sports Network broadcast that quoted an FBI special agent as saying law enforcement would not have found out about the scandal without Las Vegas bookies.
Rep. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., a former football coach at the University of Nebraska, testified he had received obscene phone calls and death threats and had his mail box blown up after gamblers complained that his team did not cover point spreads.
Gary Williams, the basketball coach at the University of Maryland, said players are well-aware of the Las Vegas betting line. Penn State basketball player Titus Ivory said players get discouraged when they notice they are 20-point underdogs before a game.
But Pete Newell, an 85-year-old former basketball coach at the University of California, said the prohibition of legal betting would lead to a return of the point shaving scandals of the 1950s.
"Beware of trading the devil you know for the devil you don't," Newell said.
One of Nevada's witnesses included Harvard Professor Howard Shaffer, a gambling addiction expert, who compared the betting ban to Congress' ill fated attempt at banning alcohol consumption.
"Then we must have prohibition (against sports betting) in 49 states," McCain countered.
When McCain left the hearing and turned the gavel over to Ensign, the Nevadan challenged NCAA and college officials to produce scientific experts to counter Shaffer's findings.
NCAA enforcement chief Bill Saum answered that Shaffer "has taken tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars from the casino industry." Ensign called Saum's comment unfair.
Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has introduced the House version of the NCAA betting ban for the last two years in the House, said the gambling industry's money is the only reason the bill hasn't passed.
"I'm almost ashamed of Congress on this issue," said Graham. "The sad thing is that before we started this debate (last year), it was illegal to bet on (college) teams in Nevada. They changed that. We're going backwards; not forwards."
Danny Sheridan, who lives in Mobile, Ala. and sets betting lines for USA Today, said he stands to increase his income by at least six figures if the NCAA betting ban is passed. But Sheridan said he opposes the legislation because it will increase, not decrease, point shaving scandals.
"Within 90 days after this bill is passed, there will be two to three dozen college football or basketball games fixed -- guaranteed," Sheridan said. Sheridan said Nevada sports books are a deterrent to point shaving. College sports without Nevada sports books, he said, would be like the stock market without the Securities and Exchange Commission.