The following opinion piece was submitted to the Washington Post by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in response to an article published by the Post on May 14.
The Post's May 14 editorial "Amateur Sports: A Bad Bet" ignored the fact that gambling-addiction specialists and many in law enforcement agree that a ban on legal sports betting in Nevada will only drive more money underground. In other words, Sen. John McCain's legislation will make matters worse.
Banning legal, regulated sports-betting for adults who are physically present in Nevada, and eliminating the only mechanism in place to monitor sports betting (Nevada's Gaming Control Board), will not reduce the number of games that are fixed. More than 20 schools were involved in NCAA and since then only four have been detected.
When Congress passed legislation in 1992 that limited sports betting, it showed deference to states' rights by permitting those states with legal sports betting to continue. The legislation passed the Senate in 1992 by an overwhelming margin of 88 to 5, with Sen. McCain's support.
No scientific evidence was presented at the Commerce Committee hearing that banning sports wagering would decrease gambling on college campuses.
One addiction specialist said that it could have the opposite effect. And it would create the nightmare of strengthening organized crime, while students continue to place illegal bets on games by way of the Internet and college bookies.