By Tony Batt
lasvegas.com Gaming Wire
WASHINGTON - The top lobbyist for the National Collegiate Athletic Association showed up Tuesday at a meeting of House members opposed to the NCAA's effort to ban legalized college sports betting in Nevada.
Doris Dixon, the NCAA’s federal relations director, accompanied a staffer of Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who will be a leading House sponsor of the betting ban.
At the meeting, lawmakers discussed a Nevada bill aimed at countering the NCAA’s ban proposal which has not yet been introduced this year. Dixon did not speak or ask questions at the session.
Wally Renfro, the NCAA’s public relations director, said Dixon attended the meeting simply to observe.
“We weren’t there to send a signal,” Renfro said. “We were there to better understand the (Nevada) bill, and the gaming community’s strategies.”
Dixon’s presence came as a surprised to Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and other members of the House gaming caucus.
“Maybe they are starting to listen to what we have been saying all along — that the biggest problem is not Nevada, but illegal bookies across the nation,” Gibbons said.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., saw it differently.
“I think they were doing a little reconnaissance,” she said.
The appearance of Dixon at the caucus meeting, coupled with the testimony last Friday in Carson City of NCAA Enforcement Director Bill Saum, is a sign that the NCAA is feeling pressure, according to Wayne Mehl, a Washington lobbyist for the Nevada Resort Association.
“They’re certainly paying more attention to us this year than they did last year,” Mehl said.
William McBeath, president of the Mirage, presented an update on the sports betting issue at the meeting.
Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., and Jerry Weller, R-Ill, who represent communities with gaming interests, were among about 25 people who attended the meeting.
Instead of a betting ban, the Nevada legislation offered on Feb. 14 calls for a national study of illegal gambling and the formation of a Justice Department task force to improve enforcement of gambling laws.
The Nevada delegation is hoping that by introducing its bill first, it will gain an advantage over the NCAA betting ban proposal.
The Nevada bill also has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which also could help, casino lobbyists believe. The committee chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch R-Utah, lost a turf fight last year with Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, for jurisdiction over the NCAA betting ban bill. At the time, McCain argued that Hatch might not move forward aggressively on the betting ban.
Berkley rushed to a series of events Tuesday to drum up support for the Nevada legislation, and said she has convinced Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., to support the bill. Delahunt sits on the House Judiciary Committee, which will have jurisdiction over the Nevada legislation.