[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 51 (Monday, March 31, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H2507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               H.R. 1451, STUDENT ATHLETE PROTECTION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, this is the final week of the NCAA 
basketball tournament. This is an exciting time, and it is also a time 
when large amounts of money are gambled. In 1998, $2.5 billion was 
gambled on the NCAA tournament. Today, that would probably be almost 
double that amount.
  Gambling on NCAA sports has become a major problem. In 1951, CCNY had 
a point-shaving scandal, and Kentucky in the 1940s. In 1994, a 
Northwestern running back intentionally fumbled to fix a game. In 1996, 
13 Boston College football players bet on NCAA games, and several bet 
against their own team. In 1998, a Northwestern basketball player was 
indicted for point shaving. In 1999, two Arizona State basketball 
players shaved points. This was done to pay off gambling debts. The fix 
was traced to organized crime in Chicago.
  Last month, Florida State quarterback Adrian McPherson was charged 
with illegal gambling, and of course he owed a bookie thousands of 
dollars. A University of Michigan study recently found that 5 percent 
of NCAA athletes that play football and basketball provided inside 
information to gamblers.
  So over 36 years of coaching, gambling was a major concern to me. I 
was always worried about our players getting involved because of 
gambling debts; but more importantly, as a coach you had to win twice. 
You had to win once on the scoreboard, and then you had to win again in 
beating the point spread.
  Someone up in the stands who had bet $10,000 on the outcome of a game 
that he could not afford to lose was not a casual observer. Most of the 
nasty memories that I have from coaching, and I do not have very many, 
had to do with hate mail, obscene phone calls at night, a mailbox that 
was blown up. In general, most all the time these were caused by 
situations where somebody had lost a bet.
  Gambling on NCAA sports is illegal in 49 States, yet it is legal in 
one State, which is the State of Nevada. So we might ask, why not have 
a uniform standard? It is like having 49 States that have to pay 
Federal income tax and then one State is given a pass.
  I have four major concerns with the Nevada loophole. First, this 
allows bets to be laid off. If there is a big game and the action is 
getting pretty heavy, a local bookie can have a runner or himself go to 
Las Vegas, up the ante, and have his bets covered. I had a young man 
from Nebraska who traveled to Las Vegas weekly to do this over a period 
of time.
  Kevin Pendergast, who orchestrated the Northwestern gambling scandal, 
said this: ``Without the option of betting in Nevada, the Northwestern 
basketball point shaving scandal would never have occurred.''
  Secondly, the loophole provides money-laundering opportunities. The 
former chairman of the Nebraska Gaming Control Board said, ``We have no 
way of knowing how much is laundered through legal sports books, but 
based on wiretaps, it is millions of dollars.''
  Thirdly, this results in ties to organized crime. FBI agent Mike 
Welch said this: ``Most student bookies, even if they don't know it, 
are working for organized crime.''
  Fourthly, giving one State a pass on amateur gambling sends a message 
that this is not really a serious problem. It is like legalizing drugs 
in one State and having them be illegal in 49 others.

                              {time}  1915

  The argument is often advanced that legal gambling on amateur sports 
in Nevada tips off a fix. In other words, as the points change and 
there is a big shift in gambling money, this will alert people that the 
fix is on. Yet in 2001 testimony on Capitol Hill, NCAA officials 
pointed out that legal sports betting in Nevada has never prevented a 
point-shaving scandal from happening. Sometimes after the fact you 
might go back and look at it and say, well, maybe something was going 
on here, but it has not really prevented anything.
  The National Gambling Impact Study Commission said in its 1999 
report, it recommended that current legal gambling on college athletics 
be banned altogether, and of course this would apply to the Nevada 
loophole.
  So I urge support for H.R. 1451 which will do exactly that. This will 
not eliminate all gambling, I realize that, on NCAA sports; but it 
certainly would be a step in the right direction and I urge support of 
H.R. 1451.

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