Paterno, Smith join NCAA gaming fight

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is counting on the support of two legendary coaches in its campaign to outlaw betting on college sports.

Retired North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith and Penn State football coach Joe Paterno have been invited to a star-studded news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday announcing the introduction of a betting ban bill, sources close to the NCAA said this morning.

The measure, co-authored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is aimed at Nevada's $2.3 billion-a-year sports betting industry.

Smith and Paterno, sources said, plan to issue statements supporting the bill Wednesday, even if they're unable to attend the news conference, which is expected to attract national media attention.

A host of university presidents, coaches, students and law enforcement officials are expected to join the NCAA and the two senators at the news conference, the sources said.

"They're bringing out the big guns," said Wayne Mehl, Washington lobbyist for the Nevada Resort Association, the casino industry's political arm here. "They're obviously trying to turn this into a national issue."

Mehl likened the bill to the campaign to make Nevada the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump. Legislation pushing Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles outside Las Vegas, as the dumpsite has been dubbed the "Screw Nevada" bill.

"This is almost Screw Nevada 2," Mehl said. "We'll just have to dig in and do the best that we can against tough odds."

Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the Washington-based American Gaming Association, said he doesn't believe support from big-name university coaches and presidents will hurt the industry's stance against the betting ban bill.

"The college coaches and presidents can just reinforce the fact that there's a college gambling problem," said Fahrenkopf, the industry's point man in the fight. "No one can establish a nexus between illegal gambling activity on college campuses across the country and the legal sports book industry in Nevada."

Fahrenkopf and other casino leaders contend the NCAA should be doing more to curb the problem on its own campuses before attacking Nevada's well-regulated betting industry.

"It is their problem, and they're trying to pass the blame for their problem to us," Fahrenkopf said.

Fahrenkopf met with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., this morning to map out a strategy to counter the NCCA's push.

Congressional sources said the plan is for Reid, the Senate's minority whip, to put together a bipartisan alternative bill that will focus attention on widespread illegal gambling across the country.

The legislation may call for a study of illegal gambling before any action can be taken to cut into sports betting in Nevada, the sources said.

"The problem is not people coming to Las Vegas to put some money on a USC-UCLA game," one Capitol Hill source said. "It's with the illegal gambling on the campuses and what the NCAA is doing about it, which at this point is nothing."

The alternative bill likely would go through the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who at one point expressed an interest in co-authoring the betting ban bill.

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