California Rep. Tours Sports Book

[AussieVamp2]

California Rep. Tours Sports Book
The Associated Press, Sat 24 Jun 2000

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Congressman Robert Matsui looked up at the sea of red, green and orange lights and spotted the odds on Tiger Woods winning the British Open.

The California Democrat might not know a lot about sports betting, but he knew a sure thing when he saw it.

``Maybe I'll bet my house on it,'' he said Saturday while touring the sports book operation at The Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

As the debate over whether college sports betting should be banned heats up in Congress, Matsui, in town for a private gathering, wanted to see for himself how sports books operate.

Matsui, who had never seen a sports book before, got a crash course in how bets are taken in and paid, how odds are set and how regulated the betting is.

Yolanda Acuna, assistant race and sports book director at The Mirage, showed Matsui how a gambler's driver's license is scanned into a computer if a bet of more than $10,000 is made. That high of a bet has to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

``Everything here is so well controlled by our state,'' Acuna said, giving Matsui a tour.

Matsui said he was impressed with the sports book operation.

``This is something that should remain,'' he said, looking up at the huge televisions showing various sports. ``We shouldn't tamper with this. This has probably the greatest enforcement and control than anything else.''

A Senate committee voted in April to ban betting on college sports — a practice legal only in Nevada.

The legislation would outlaw betting on Olympic, college or high school athletic events. Though there is little legal betting on the Olympics and none on high school sports, Nevada's gambling industry accepts bets on college sporting events that do not involve a school in the state.

The Nevada gambling industry took in $2.3 billion in sports wagers in fiscal 1999, with 30 percent to 40 percent bet on college sports.

Supporters of the amateur sports betting ban have said it would help in the broader fight against illegal gambling on college campuses. Those opposed to the bill say it will just spread illegal gambling because legal gambling would be taken away.

The House has not yet held hearings on a similar bill.

``This is a form of entertainment,'' Matsui said. ``It's totally regulated and should be able to continue on.''

Matsui is a co-sponsor of a bill proposed by Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., that calls for a study of illegal gambling. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., sponsored a similar bill in the Senate.

Berkley said she invited Matsui to the sports book because she wanted him to see how regulated gambling is in Nevada.

``I think this was very successful,'' she said after the tour. ``He will be a strong advocate for Nevada's position.''

Alan Feldman, spokesman for Mirage-owner MGM Grand, said showing members of Congress Nevada's sports books is the only way they can understand the issue.

Jay Jacobsen of San Diego was monitoring the horse race he bet on Saturday as Matsui and Berkley made their way through the sports book.

``I love this town,'' he said, listing his winnings for the day.

As for banning one of his hobbies, Jacobsen said it wouldn't solve anything.

``People are going to go back to bookies.''

[scott]

AV2...Rep. Matsui was indeed in town. Mr Matusi and fellow Democrat Rep. Shelly Berkley and a TV crew took advantage of the photo op. They proclaimed to all that they would fight to preserve the solom bla, bla, bla. The only hitch was that Senate Majority Leader, R-Trent Lott, had already killed any chance of this add on legislation ever seeing the light of day. Every Bill must get his approval to come out of commitee for a vote and Mr.Lott said this one has no chance. Case closed. Although this was a published story with a 6/23 dateline Reps. Berkley & Matusi were be glad to "land on the right side". Politicians in the US, espicially of the left, have it made because the majority of Americans dont pay attention. Bottom line: No ban this session regardless of the disingenuous Ms Berkley and Mr.Matusi...Scotty

AV2 You pay closer attention than most to the important matters even in the US. Thanx

[MarkDel]

Scotty,

You are RIGHT ON TARGET with your analysis. This was a safe move by Mastui because of Lott's earlier actions. Lott has to take a public posture that he's anti-gambling because he serves as a Senator in Mississippi, where he needs the vote of the christian right to guarantee his re-election. But the fact is that Lott has been a very good, albeit very subtle friend of people like us. It was also Trent Lott who saw to it that the original Kyl Bill never made it to Clinton's desk. Unlike the President, Lott essentially has "line item" power in what he sends to the President and he can remove whatever bill he thinks is a bad bill, which is the reader's digest version of what he did with Kyl.

Because of the fringe religious right, most people here assume that the Republican party is our big enemy in the battle over legalized gambling. But the libertarian conservatives and economic conservatives (guys like Trent Lott, Arlen Specter, Judd Gregg, etc...) within the Republican party are actually on our side on this issue, they just have to tiptoe very carefully for fear of angering the volatile moralistic right wing. As for the Democratic Party, most of their members have this paternalistic view that government needs to protect everyone from themselves, so we can expect very little help should they take back Congress to go along with a Gore presidency.

Like so many "morality" issues, gambling causes an unholy and utterly terrifying alliance between the politically correct left and the moralistic right. Along with gambling, other issues that these two extreme groups agree on is pornography, violence on television, smoking and other lesser safety issues like mandatory seatbelts, bike helmets for kids, etc...

It's a scary time to believe in freedom because you are under attack from both the left and the right. Sorry for the rant, but you astute comments on Trent Lott made me want to elaborate on where I think you might have been going with your comments.

[AussieVamp2]

June 26, 2000

Betting bill jockeying continues

Calif. congressman visits Mirage book
By Benjamin Grove

LAS VEGAS SUN

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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WASHINGTON -- Nevada's senators continue to monitor a bill that would ban betting on college sports in Nevada. The legislation could surface this week.

The bill's primary supporters in the Senate, John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., could try to attach the legislation as an amendment to a Department of Defense spending authorization bill that has been debated in recent days.

The Senate could consider the bill again this week as it considers a number of other spending bills. The Senate will not be in session next week.

Brownback is eager to get a vote on the measure.

"We seek an up-or-down vote," Brownback said on the Senate floor last week, according to the Congressional record. "Let's just press this issue through and see what the will of the body is."

Brownback spokesman Erik Hotmire said, "We're watching very intently. Sen. Brownback is looking forward to this hitting the floor at any point. He would have liked to had a vote on this a month ago."

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., could pursue another option: allow Brownback and McCain to push the betting ban legislation as its own free-standing bill.

But Brownback apparently prefers to introduce it as an amendment to the defense bill in an effort to force a simple "yes or no" vote, say staffers in the Nevada Senate offices. If Brownback introduced the legislation as its own bill, other senators could bog it down with unrelated amendments.

Nevada is the only state that offers legal betting on college sports. Bill supporters say that practice leads to rampant illegal gambling by students on college campuses, led by student bookies with Las Vegas connections.

Nevada's four members in Congress loudly object to the bill, saying it will not curb illegal betting by college students.

Meanwhile one Nevada-friendly member of Congress got an up-close look at sports books this weekend. Sports book operators at the Mirage on Saturday gave Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., a crash course in how bets are made and paid, how odds are set and how regulated betting is.

"This is something that should remain," he said, gazing at the televisions in the Mirage sports book. "We shouldn't tamper with this. This has probably the greatest enforcement and control than anything else."

The House Judiciary Committee has held one hearing on the bill but has not voted on whether to send it to the full House for a vote.

Matsui is a co-sponsor of an alternative bill backed by Nevada's House members, Democrat Shelley Berkley and Republican Jim Gibbons. That bill calls for a study of illegal gambling.