A bill in the U.S. House of Representatives and its Senate counterpart might aid the NCAA in its ongoing attempt to eliminate collegiate sports gambling.
The bill, H.R. 3575, would eliminate all legalized forms of gambling on collegiate sports in all 50 states. It is a follow-up to the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prohibited all wagering on amateur and professional sports events in all states, except those already conducting sports gambling or that had enacted legislation in an attempt to do so.
Nevada, the only state since 1992 that has conducted legalized sports gambling, thus betting on college sports, would lose its protection under the “grandfather” clause.
In 1996, Congress created a National Gambling Impact Study Commission to report on the effects of gambling nationwide. In November 1998, the commission reported that sports betting legally takes in $2.4 billion, and as much as $380 billion is spent on illegal sports gambling.
H.R. 3575 is a direct response to the commission’s recommendation to eliminate legalized betting on college sports. The House Judiciary Committee favored the bill by a 19-9 vote. Congress has read the bill, but it has been referred back to committees.
“The NCAA is very supportive of the legislation,” said Jane Jankowski, the NCAA’s assistant director for public relations. “Quite frankly, when the bill was first introduced, we did not think there would be sufficient members behind it.
“Now we know the bill has a chance to pass, and we are behind it.”
Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tim Roemer, D-Ind., originally introduced the bill in February 2000. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., are sponsors of the Senate counterpart.
Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University and chairman of the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors, has testified before Congress in favor of the bill. Several other sports figures, including Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany, University of South Carolina head football coach Lou Holtz, University of Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Tubby Smith and Dean Smith, former head coach of the University of North Carolina’s men’s basketball team, have gone before Congress to testify in support of the bill.
The Nevada Gaming Commission made several counter-proposals to the NCAA regarding collegiate sports wagering, including a proposal to limit all college sports bets to $550 and eliminate legal wagering on high school and Olympic sports.
In an October 2000 press release, the NCAA called the proposals “a smokescreen” and rejected them. The press release also said that that by proposing a $550 limit, the Nevada Gaming Commission is acknowledging that illegal bookmakers come to Nevada to pay off large sums of money.
The Emerald attempted to reach management at Las Vegas Sports Consultants, a sports gambling agency that establishes point spreads and over-under numbers for games, but a receptionist said that the company will not allow employees to talk to media for “the next few months,” and that the company recently changed management.
The gambling impact commission found that legal gambling on sports feeds illegal gambling activity. Opponents of the bill argue that it would not address the larger issue of illegal college sports wagering and bookkeeping, or management of a gambling organization. The bill’s proponents argue that it is intended only as a starting point.
Jankowski said the NCAA does not feel that the bill will lead to increased illegal gambling on college sports.
Randy Sealby, a special agent in the FBI’s Chicago bureau, said that to his knowledge, the FBI has released no official statement about the bill because its effects cannot be determined.
Sealby also said that most bookkeepers rely on point spreads created at Las Vegas consulting agencies. If sports gambling is made illegal in Nevada, the bookkeepers would not have access to the currently available range of betting odds and may decide to stop taking bets as a result.A sports wager is legal only if one is physically in Las Vegas, according to Sealby.
“Point spreads start in Las Vegas,” said Sealby. “If you didn’t have that, you might not have the offshoots, and it might just dry up. We really don’t know.”