"With the overwhelming support of those who are most familiar with the problems associated with amateur sports gambling, passage of (a bill to ban amateur sports gambling) should be a given. Not so. Why? This brings us to the bill's opponents, their motivations and their methods.

"In a March 2001 report, Public Citizen concluded that legislation to ban gambling on amateur sports, which has twice been reported out of the Commerce Committee, has been blocked by the flow of soft-money contributions from the gaming industry to both political parties.

"Both parties have chosen, Public Citizen suggested, to trade a measure that can help protect our youth and maintain the integrity of amateur sports for financial contributions in the last election cycle and the promise of more soft money to come.

"What about opponents' claims that by banning gambling in Nevada, we are eliminating the effective 'policing' function that casinos perform when they look for anomalous betting patterns to determine whether a game has been fixed, and that we'll cause an explosion of illegal gambling? Give me a break. There is no evidence that Nevada casinos have ever prevented a point-shaving incident.

"Moreover, stopping legalized betting is far more likely to stem illegal gambling than to fuel it. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission concluded as much when it observed, 'legal sports wagering -- especially the publication in the media of Las Vegas and off-shore generated point spreads -- fuels a much larger amount of illegal sports wagering.'

"Former Notre Dame football star Kevin Pendergast, who served time in prison for his orchestration of a point-shaving scheme involving the Northwestern University basketball team, insists that, 'Without Nevada, without the option of betting in Nevada, the Northwestern basketball point-shaving scandal would not have occurred.'

"The NCAA and college administrators have done little and have few incentives to curb gambling on college campuses. Legislation to prohibit betting on amateur sporting events in Nevada is not a solution to rid our college campuses of illegal bookies and put an end to college point-shaving scandals. This bill would only drive the industry underground, lining the pockets of organized crime bosses across the country and allowing these criminals to operate under the radar screen. ...

"(O)f the four documented point-shaving scandals since the Nevada sports books were legalized in 1975, at least one party involved in each of the scandals had a previous history with illegal gambling and agreed to fix the game (or games) to exonerate their debts. We can all agree that one scandal is too many, and steps should be taken to ensure the integrity of college sporting events, as well as student safety from the temptation of illegal bookies while on campus.

"Unfortunately, proponents of legislation to ban amateur sports wagering in Nevada believe that, by doing so, they will effectively rid college sports of scandal, root out the cancer of illegal bookies on our campuses, and stop the publication of point spreads in newspapers. They could not be more wrong. Banning legal, highly regulated amateur sports betting in Nevada will drive the activity underground permanently.

"Ninety-eight percent of all sports wagering is illegal, with the remaining 2 percent taking place by those physically present in the state of Nevada. Bets are highly regulated in my state, and persons wishing to place bets must be physically present in Nevada. All sports bets are monitored by state and federal authorities -- any wagers more than $3,000 require photo identification and bets over $10,000 are reported to the Internal Revenue Service.