Legislation pending before Congress to restrict gambling on college sports events continues to have life as the 106th Congress moves toward an early October adjournment date.

The NCAA strongly supports legislation that would remove a loophole in a 1992 federal law that permits Nevada to be the only state that allows legal gambling on college sports. The Association also backs another measure that would ban gambling over the Internet.

College sports gambling

In the Senate, the Amateur Sports Integrity Act (S. 2340) has surfaced on the Senate floor on several occasions since it was adopted June 13 by the Senate Commerce Committee. The bill would eliminate the loophole included in the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that permits Nevada to be the only state to conduct legal sports gambling on college athletics contests.

However, senators from Nevada have blocked repeated attempts to bring the measure to a vote. In addition, leaders from both parties have been reluctant to push the bill forward, fearing that a protracted debate would tie up valuable floor time in the waning weeks of the congressional session.

Under Senate rules, if even one senator disagrees with proceeding to consideration of a bill, it usually is not considered because that senator could tie up the Senate floor for an unlimited time. The Nevada senators continue to block any effort that would allow the legislation to be considered, and the leadership has not been willing to adopt tactics that would force a vote.

Ironically, both Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, and Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, readily admitted on the Senate floor that the legislation would be adopted overwhelmingly if the Senate had a chance to vote on the bill.

Efforts by the senate bill's sponsors, Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, to bring the bill to a vote in the Senate have prompted strong language from Nevada senators.

"If they (the NCAA) are so sincere in stopping betting on these games, why don't they not allow these games to be telecast?" asked Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, in remarks on the Senate floor July 25. "Just do not have any college games on television -- no football games, no NCAA Final Four, no Rose Bowl, just outlaw them...

"Of course, we get college coaches coming in saying they do not want their kids playing and having people bet on them....This issue is a sham. Again of course, the NCAA, for a lack of a better description, simply does not know what they are talking about."

Although the Senate calendar is packed with appropriations bills that must be signed into law before Con- gress adjourns, efforts to bring the bill to the Senate floor are gaining support and there may be an opportunity for a vote before Congress adjourns.

In the House of Representatives, Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Tim Roemer, D-Indiana, sponsor the Student-Athlete Protection Act, H.R. 3575, the companion bill to S. 2340. Both congressmen continue to work with the House leadership to secure a vote on the bill in the House.

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to adopt the legislation in early September. The legislation is co-sponsored by 80 House members, and the legislation is expected to pass easily on the House floor if the leadership allows the bill to be considered. However, several prominent House leaders have announced that they will try to block any attempt to bring the legislation to the House floor.

Internet gambling legislation

In November 1999, legislation to ban gambling over the Internet, sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, unanimously passed the Senate.

However, a similar bill in the U.S. House of Representatives has faced stiffer opposition. On July 17, the House voted, 245-159, in support of H.R. 3125, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. Although the bill garnered 61 percent of the votes, it failed to obtain the two-thirds support required by a special process that would have expedited the legislation's passage.

Nearly four years ago, the National Association of Attorneys General, concerned about the circumvention of existing state and federal laws by off-shore Internet gambling companies, approached members in the Senate and House and urged them to address wagering on the Internet.

Law enforcement presently is relying on a 1961 federal law aimed at prohibiting sports gambling over the telephone. However, the law does not adequately address gambling over the Internet.

Both the House and Senate bills update existing law by extending the prohibition against Internet gambling to wireless communications (for example, gambling on cell phones or over satellite communications). The bills also would provide a new enforcement mechanism for law enforcement to use against foreign online gambling businesses. S. 692 and H.R. 3125 contain limited exemptions for the horse racing industry. The bill does not impact legitimate, online sports fantasy leagues.

The July 17 vote revealed that the bill was strongly opposed by a number of special-interest groups, including the Internet gambling industry, libertarians and those arguing against a provision related to the treatment of parimutuel betting.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, chief sponsor of H.R. 3125, is working to get another House vote in early September. That vote would require only a simple majority for passage.

The sports gambling bills -- the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, Amateur Sports Integrity Act and Student-Athlete Protection Act -- are based on recommendations made by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. Congress charged that commission with conducting a two-year study on the impact of gambling on the nation.

Doris Dixon, NCAA director of federal relations, said the bills related to sports gambling are common-sense approaches to the reality that gambling on college sports threatens the welfare of student-athletes and jeopardizes the integrity of the games they play.

"The college athletics community must continue to make its voice heard on these measures, critical to the preservation of the integrity of college sports," she said. "Without action, sports gambling will continue to grow unchecked."

Dixon said the NCAA urges its membership to contact their congressional delegations and urge them to support legislation to prohibit Internet gambling and legal gambling on college sports.