Just when you think that the proponents of legalized betting on America's student-athletes have stretched decency as far as it will go, they surprise you and take greed to the new level.

The most recent example involves Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, who has proposed removing a state regulation that bans Nevada casinos from taking bets on Nevada's university teams. This 50-year-old ban has had less to do with principle and more to do with controlling the risk of tainted competition. In fact, I -- along with others -- have noted the irony of a policy that tacitly acknowledges the perils of sports betting by distancing Nevada bookies and bettors from local teams. It is rank hypocrisy. On the one hand, the Nevada gambling industry claims that legalized sports betting is danger-free. At the same time, in an acknowledgment of the real threat to our student-athletes that legalized betting represents, they provide Nevada student-athletes with the very same protection the Amateur Sports Integrity Act seeks to extend to the rest of America's young athletics hopefuls.

Repealing the protection for Nevada athletes turns logic on its head. As long as sports betting on student-athletes remains legal in Nevada, this policy makes sense for all concerned. Logic dictates that the ban should be extended to protect all of our young athletes, not the other way around. But greed can be a powerful force for bad policy, and so the gambling industry is now attempting to fix the game on college sports betting. They will rid themselves of the criticism that they are hypocritical while at the same time pocketing a few extra dollars by permitting betting on Nevada college teams. Never mind that this course of action will expose athletes at Nevada institutions to new potential for pressure and corruption.

I am disappointed that Nevada officials would consider any strategy that fails to support the best interests of the student-athletes in their state. I believe most people join me in condemning a change that would open a door to betting on young people that has been closed for 50 years.

Those who are following this issue should not be persuaded by the empty argument that the ban is antiquated and that Nevada now can guard against point-shaving in ways that it couldn't before. In fact, America has witnessed an explosion in the amount of money being wagered on our children, and with it, a corresponding increase in the threat. The fact is that gambling interests fear that we will pass federal legislation banning college sports gambling, and they are trying to jettison their greatest vulnerability -- their blatant hypocrisy.

The governor himself recently acknowledged that bills supported by the NCAA could pass Congress if given a chance. "If it comes to a vote," he told the Las Vegas Sun, "we probably wouldn't do well. But if it doesn't come to a vote, then we need to be prepared because it is certainly going to come up again."

He has that part right. I am determined to secure a Senate vote on banning college sports gambling, and I know that conscientious representatives in the House are working equally hard to force the question of protecting our kids to a vote.

Meanwhile, this latest development should illustrate clearly for the rest of the country how far Nevada officials are willing to go to accommodate gambling industry, even at the expense of their own young athletes, placing them, along with the rest of America's young athletes, at the mercy of bookies and bettors.

In an increasingly jaded world, legalized gambling on college athletes sends the wrong message to America's youth. Collegiate competition serves as a laboratory classroom where young student-athletes struggle to apply the highest ideals of the American character: courage in the face of adversity, discipline, teamwork and self-sacrifice. These ideals and lessons are of particular importance in today's society. They should not be reduced to a point spread and a spectacle for wagering.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, is chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.