Dear Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Conyers:

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee will consider H.R. 3575, the so-called 'Student Athlete Protection Act.'  The American Gaming Association strongly opposes this ill-conceived legislation.  Sadly, H.R. 3575 represents the triumph of sensationalism over substance and clever public relations over serious public policy.

Our views are shared by a diverse range of independent sports experts, from Bryant Gumbel and Larry Merchant of HBO Sports, to Jim Rome of Fox Sports Net, syndicated columnists George F. Will and Al Neuharth, USA Today sports analyst Danny Sheridan, writers for Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News, the editorial pages of The Chicago Sun-Times and The Tampa Tribune, and the director of Harvard Medical School's Division on Addictions.  Critics of the NCAA's simplistic, self-serving approach also include former college coaches who are free to speak their minds: Georgetown's John Thompson and the legendary Pete Newell.

By all accounts, illegal gambling on college sports is rampant in and around our nation's campuses, communities, and sports stadiums.  According to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, illegal sports gambling is estimated to involve annual revenues of $80 billion to $380 billion (or 98-99 percent of all sports wagering).

While most of this illegal sports gambling takes place among friends or through illegal local bookies, H.R. 3575 does nothing to strengthen federal and state law enforcement of existing laws against this activity.  In fact, sponsors of H.R. 3575 and its Senate counterpart have publicly condoned the very informal betting among friends that is closest to college campuses, including student athletes, and constitutes much if not most of the massive illegal sports gambling that takes place nationwide.

Just last week, University of South Carolina football coach Lou Holtz appeared on Dr. James Dobson's 'Focus on the Family' radio broadcast.  While he opposes all forms of sports gambling, to his credit Coach Holtz made it clear that serious campus-based gambling problems go beyond the limited legal wagering in Nevada, yet Nevada is the only target of H.R. 3575's provisions.

Coach Holtz specifically mentioned the Internet as a gateway for illegal sports gambling.  There are far more Internet gambling sites taking sports bets, each of which is available on any given campus computer, than there are legal sports books available only to adults physically present in Nevada.  Yet, Congress appears unwilling to act against illegal Internet sports gambling accessible by students, and all too willing to rush to judgment about Nevada's state-regulated sports wagering that is restricted to adults.

Following the failure of the House to pass H.R. 3125, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, an NCAA lobbyist was quoted lamenting that they had organized coaches to support H.R. 3575 but had not done so on H.R. 3125, even though Internet sports gambling is widely available on campuses while Nevada's sports wagering is not.

Instead of addressing illegal sports gambling, H.R. 3575 takes the unjustified and perverse approach of attacking only the one state where Congress has expressly sanctioned state-regulated sports wagering.  Nevada was specifically grandfathered for sound public policy reasons when Congress enacted the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 1992.  The Judiciary Committee has not even begun to explore the constitutional and other legal issues associated with repeal of a 'grandfather clause' on which one of the 50 sovereign States and its private sector have relied.

Were laws and prohibitory NCAA rules sufficient to curb illegal sports gambling, the practice would not be so widespread.  Instead, the National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that it is the most popular form of gambling.  Sports gambling by and among underage students thrives on campuses among both the general student population and student-athletes, according to the NCAA and studies by researchers at the University of Michigan, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Memphis.  None of this gambling is caused by, or connected to, Nevada's limited state-regulated wagering.

College presidents testified before Congress that students on their campuses have not been disciplined even though they freely acknowledge the presence of student bookies.  In fact, one university whose president testified before the Committee actually ran a campus-endorsed 'casino night' in violation of state law.  The president's defense was that this was done to 'educate' students about gambling, which makes as much sense as setting your own house on fire to teach your children about proper emergency evacuation procedures!

For almost one year now, we have asked a simple question: what is it about what happens in Nevada (where persons must be over 21 and physically present to wager in state-supervised, public facilities) that affects the other 49 states where illegal sports gambling thrives?  While the NCAA claims that H.R. 3575 is needed to block newspapers from publishing 'point spreads,' the letter to the Committee from the Newspaper Association of America flatly contradicts the NCAA's assertions.

H.R. 3575 is the handiwork of those who simply wish to deflect attention from their own shortcomings in addressing the gambling problems in their own backyards.  Blaming Nevada is like blaming Napa Valley winegrowers for binge drinking on campus.  A little dose of Harry Truman's common sense would go a long way: the buck ought to stop on the desks of those responsible for our nation's campuses.  Almost one year ago we offered to help them, an offer that was reaffirmed but totally ignored by the NCAA.

If Congress wishes to fashion a comprehensive response, there are bills pending before the Committee (H.R. 3800 and H.R. 4284) that take a truly national approach.  When we testified in June, we stated our willingness to require the Justice Department to examine Nevada's sports wagering as part of the work required of the Justice Department by H.R. 3800.  Apparently, the sponsors of H.R. 3575 are afraid that a close examination of the facts by an independent third party will not support their baseless assertions.

The students and student-athletes behind whom the sponsors of H.R. 3575 hide will be the real losers regardless of whether the bill becomes law.  If enacted, there will be a false sense that Congress has addressed the college campus gambling problem.

It is simply a shame that adults have played politics and practiced public relations by trying to shift the blame to Nevada, while nothing has been done to implement the very recommendations to protect students that the NCAA itself once supported.  For example, nothing in H.R. 3575 puts into place what at one time the NCAA told the National Gambling Impact Study Commission was needed, including creation of a Justice Department task force and the stiffer penalties contained in H.R. 3800 and H.R. 4284.

We respectfully urge the Committee to resist the temptation to take the easy way out afforded by H.R. 3575 and instead force all parties, including the NCAA, to come to the table and work together on comprehensive national solutions that make sense and actually address illegal college sports gambling.

       Sincerely,

       Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.

CC: Members, House Judiciary Committee