By Tony Batt
lasvegas.com Gaming Wire
WASHINGTON -- The bitter battle between the NCAA and the gambling industry moves back to center stage Thursday in Congress where a parade of witnesses will debate before a committee headed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., whether betting on college sports at Nevada casinos should be banned.
For the second consecutive year the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee will call forth a lengthy list of lawmakers, sports figures and academics to comment on legislation that would make it illegal to accept wagers on intercollegiate athletics.
Nevada is the only state where betting on college games is legal, and state leaders and the casino industry have prepped for the event like it was the Super Bowl.
The casino industry argues that outlawing legal college betting will do nothing to stem gambling on those games while it will trample state rights and deprive casinos of an income source. Nevada sports books receive about $2.3 billion in bets each year, which is estimated to be 1 percent of total organized gambling on sports nationwide.
"We're hoping to get as much ink as we can for this hearing so our message resonates in jurisdictions other than Nevada," said Frank Fahrenkopf, president of American Gaming Association.
The hearing matches McCain, lead sponsor of the betting ban in the Senate, against one of the Commerce Committee’s newest members, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.
Ensign was given the task of putting together witnesses to support the state’s case.
In an unusual twist, Ensign has asked NCAA enforcement chief Bill Saum to testify at the hearing.
Ensign declined to discuss what he will ask Saum. Sources said he will grill Saum on what efforts the NCAA has taken to curtail illegal sports betting on college campuses.
"We hope to be able to make our case that banning legal sports betting in Nevada will do nothing to fix the problem of illegal sports betting,” Ensign said. “As a matter of fact, it will make it worse.”
Former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne, now a Republican congressman, will testify in favor of the gambling ban. He had been a cosponsor of an alternative bill backed by the gambling industry, but withdrew his support earlier this week.
"He ultimately decided his priority should be on seeing a ban on betting on all amateur athletics," Osborne spokeswoman Kelly Sokol said. "He believes coaches and players are expected to win twice as a result of legalized gambling, and if they don’t beat the spread, some people think there’s no point in winning the game," Sokol said.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., tentatively listed as a leadoff witness, said unlike last year, Nevada’s chances of defeating the betting ban have improved to "a little less than 50-50."
"Remember, last year at this time, people were predicting we had no chance," Reid said.
McCain sponsored similar legislation last year that sailed through the commerce committee but stalled when Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., blocked a final vote on the floor. A similar measure is pending in the House, but a committee hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s hostile hearings in Congress, the gambling industry has turned to a cast of outsiders to plead Nevada’s case.
Industry lobbyists have been touting Pete Newell, the 85-year-old former basketball coach at the University of California, as their star witness.
In an opinion piece earlier this month in the Los Angeles Times, Newell said a ban on legal betting will make point shaving scandals more likely.
Other witnesses expected to favor the gambling industry include Harvard University professor Howard Shaffer, an expert on gambling addiction, and Danny Sheridan, who prepares betting lines for USA Today.
Fahrenkopf said the NCAA-backed betting ban will not stand up in court and may prove counterproductive. A successful court challenge could open the door to legalized sports betting in Atlantic City and Mississippi, he said.
McCain hopes Thursday's hearing will "build momentum for the (betting ban) bill so we can get it passed as soon as possible," spokeswoman Pia Pialorsi said.
South Carolina football Coach Lou Holtz was expected to head McCain’s witness list, but he suffered an injury in a fall and will not attend the hearing, Pialorsi said.
Other witnesses supporting the ban will include Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams and William C. Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina. Friday is co-chair of the Knight Foundation, a panel of university presidents, business and sports leaders studying reform of college athletics. The panel reviewed the betting issue during a meeting in January in Washington.