Senators target
legal loopholes
in existing law
BEITING from page 20<
Protection Act of 1992, which made
sports gambling illegal in every state
but Nevada and Oregon, where it’s
used in the lottery. The bill is endorsed
by, not surprisingly, the NCAA and 26
other major U.S. amateur organiza
tions.
The legislation hinges on five
main goals:
■ Eliminate the Nevada sports
book for gain-in-point shaving scan
dals;
■ Eliminate the legitimacy of pub
lishing point spreads and advertising
for sports tout services;
■ Resensitize the public to the ille
gal nature of gambling on college
sports;
■ Reduce the number of people
who are introduced to sports wager
ing;
■ Eliminate conflicting messages
as we combat illegal sports wagering
that say it’s O.K. to wager on sports in
some places but not others.
Supporters hope the bill cuts gam
bling off at its source: Nevada. The
majority of the points spreads are cre
ated in the state, which are often used
by small-time illegal bookies and are
printed by newspapers around the
nation.
The fact that the bill goes across
party lines might help the chances of
the bill’s passing. Support is pervasive
in the sports community, so that might
help also.
Kut Americans like gambling. Cut
it off in Nevada, aid they’ll find other
outlets.
That’s the case made by John
Harper, a senior oddsmaker at Las
Vegas Sports Consultants, the largest
oddsmaking service in the country,
which makes spreads for 85 percent of
Las Vegas sports books.
“College-educated people get into
sports gambling, and they’re not going
to let this legislation be passed,”
Harper said. “Compared to other
games at a casino, gambling on sports
is a pretty fair deal. Certainly the edu
cated people see this, and that’s why
this bill has such a little chance of
being passed.”
Financial concern was one or the
main reasons gambling proponents
cried foul after the bill was announced
on Feb 1. Frank Steshley from the tax
division of the Nevada Game and
Control Board said approximately 2.5
billion was taken in legally by the
state’s casinos during 1999.
Harper estimates that only 20-25
percent of the Las Vegas Sports
Consultant, Inc., business comes from
college athletics with little coming
from Olympic sports and none from
high school athletics. The rest of the
business deals with professional
sports, prize fights, etc.
Harper agreed that illegal gam
bling was a problem, but said shutting
down regulated and taxed betting isn’t
the way to solve the dilemma.
“The premise of the bill is faulty,”
he said. “The people behind the bill
don’t realize that 99 percent of sports
betting is not done in Nevada - its ille
gal or offshore.
“It doesn’t matter if the bets origi
nate from here. What a lot of people
don’t understand is that if we get shut
down, other places in the world will
still make the lines - Nevada is
dwarfed in gambling by other coun
tries all over the world.”
Harlan Vogel, program coordina
tor for the treatment of problem gam
bling at Family Services of the Omaha
Metro Area, agreed.
“I think what the legislation would
do is cause gambling to move further
underground,” Vogel said. “At UNL it’s
illegal, yet I’ve heard figures that say
one million dollars is bet during one
” I think what
the legislation
would do is move
gambling further
underground.”
Harlan Vogel
Family Services worker
football weekend. If you multiply that
by all of the campuses across the coun
ty it’s a lot of money.”
Mecca for gambling
Still, shutting down college sports
gambling in Nevada would be a step in
the right direction, supporters say.
Since the state held its first heavy
weight title fight between Bob
Fitzsimmons and James S. Colbert in
1897 in Carson City, Nevada has been
a mecca for gambling on athletics.
And many collegiate gambling
scandals in the past century have
involved people placing large bets
legally in Nevada after conspiring with
athletes to Fix games.
One of the most famous cases in
NCAA history involved the 1950
NCAA and NIT champions, The City
College of New York. College basket
ball in the Big Apple and Madison
Square Garden was never the same.
Some also believe the NIT, which had
the same amount of credibility as the
NCAA Tournament at the time, never
recovered from the incident.
Most recently, two college basket
ball players from Arizona State were
implicated in a point-shaving scam
connected to Las Vegas gambling.
In the 1990s alone, at least seven
schools and more than 50 athletes have
been implicated in scandals that
involve fixing games - losing on pur
pose - and point-shaving - intentional
ly playing poorly to win by less or lose
by more than a team ordinarily would
have.
Nebraska I-back Dan Alexander
said Comhusker football players are
cautioned about the dangers of sports
gambling several times a year.
Alexander said he never has been
approached by anyone asking him to
throw a contest.
une tiling we re warned about is a
lot of times players are approached by
people trying to get the inside scoop
on the team so they can make profits
(gambling),” Alexander said. “(The
coaches and administrators) worry
about players getting in with the book
ies and then being restricted by them.”
Dean Smith, former North
Carolina basketball coach, thinks
newspapers’ publishing point spreads
and advertisements for sports gam
bling institutions also are problems.
The Washington Post is the only
newspaper that refrains from publish
ing point spreads. In a letter to
Senators Brownback and Leahy,
Smith said:
“Publishing point spreads gives
credence to illegal gambling and,
many times, it encourages a person
who thinks the point spread is not cor
rect to place an illegal bet.”
Alexander said Husker players
know spreads exist - NU used them as
a strong rallying point after the 1997
season to campaign for national cham
pionship - but they’re not used by
players in any other way.
“We hear about them,” Alexander
said. “Usually we only hear about
them if they’re a motivating reason
-when people (who make the spreads)
don’t give credit where credit is due.
“That’s the only reason we’d ever
look at them.”
—WOMEN’S TENNIS —
Pelazini keeps
the chemistry
in tennis team
By Brian Christopherson
Staff writer
Nebraska Women’s Tennis Coach Scott Jacobson
wishes they all coulcfbe California girls.
At least he couldn’t be blamed for thinking that
way if his whole team matched the work ethic and
leadership of Golden State representative Gina
Pelazini.
The Nebraska senior co-captain from Rialto,
Calif, has intangibles as a leader that make life a little
easier for the coach.
“She’s always in a neutral position between the
coaches and the team,” Jacobson said. “She is large
ly responsible for the chemistry of the program.”
Pelazini is still a little jittery about her being such
a commanding figure to her teammates.
“I get kind of nervous when I think about being a
senior,” Pelazini said. “I am just starting to feel good
about my game.”
Her game largely is responsible for the
Comhuskers’ early-season success.
The 4-1 Huskers have had big boosts from
Pelazini and the 4-1 singles and doubles record she
brings to the table.
Pelazini has seen duty at the No. 4 and 5 spots in
singles action, but teamed up with senior Sandra
Noetzel in No. 1 doubles to knock off the fourth
ranked doubles team in the country from Texas earli
er in the season.
“You have to know your partner, and I like play
ing with Sandra,” she said. “There are some great
singles players that can’t play well together. It
depends on how well you work together
“The togetherness on this team is one of the best
things we have going for us,” Pelazini said. “On
many teams, the competition is so fierce between
each other that they don’t like each other, but here,
we hang out with each other.”
Pelazini is looking to improve on her record with
Southwest Missouri State and Wichita State’s com
ing to town this weekend.
“fnt pretty confident that we can win those
matches fairly easily,” Pelazini said.
-WOMEN’S BASKETBALL—
Pressure high
for b-ball win
■ Husker seniors
aiming to play well
in last home game.
By John Gaskins
Staff writer
If the circumstances sur
rounding its home game
with 12-13 Oklahoma State
made the Nebraska
women’s basketball team
play tight and nervous on
Tuesday night, how will
they play tomorrow night
against Kansas State (12-15,
5-9) with even more on the
line?
According to the Husker
seniors, just fine.
This comes despite a 14
11 record that spells WNIT
(Women’s National
Invitational Tournament)
instead of NCAA if NU
loses. And this attitude
comes despite hoards of
their hometown fans pack
ing the stands for the last
home game of their careers,
and despite their tentative
ness for the first 30 minutes
of the OSU game - a 75-71
overtime victory, in which
Sanderford said the women
were outplayed.
“I think we’ll be more
ready,” senior guard Nicole
Kubik said. “Nobody wants
to leave their home floor los
ing. That’s something we
can control. We're going to
go out as winners. As far as
being nervous about bating
(K-State), we know we can
beat them. We beat them
before.”
The rematch of the
Huskers’ 68-61 victory over
the Wildcats in Manhattan,
Kan., on Jan. 30 will tip off
at 7:05 p.m. at the Bob
Devaney Sports Center. NU
sits tied for fifth place with
Texas at 8-6 and is hanging
on for dear life in NCAA
Tournament consideration.
Four seniors - Kubik,
guard Brooke Schwartz,
forward Charlie Rogers and
forward Cisco Gilmore will
be honored on senior night.
Coach Paul Sanderford will
start all four - a tradition he
has upheld in all 18 years of
coaching at both Western
Kentucky and Nebraska.
Starting them won’t be a
stretch from the norm for
Sanderford.Kubik,
Schwartz and Rogers have
started nearly every game in
the past two years, while
Gilmore started most of last
season’s games and is usual
ly one of the first players off
the bench this season.
The four seniors have
combined for 58 percent of
NU’s scoring, 49 percent of
its rebounding and 64 per
cent of its steals this season.
“These four kids I inher
ited were the major building
blocks of the program,” said
third-year coach
Sanderford. “I hope people
will realize the time, effort
and energy these kids have
put into women’s basketball
here. I’ll miss their work
ethic the most.”
Camenzind: Let them pray: No one
is hurt, and the team gets united
PRAYER from page 20
1985, and it was originally intended to
curb the efforts of CU Football Coach
Bill McCartney, who left the
Buffaloes in 1994 to take over
Promise Keepers, a nationwide men’s
Christian oiganization.
The policy states:
“Coaches should not organize or
conduct religious activities, including
promotion of prayer or Bible readings
by players or coaches.”
This can be a tough subject to deal
with, but not on a case-by-case basis.
The Buff players have no qualm
with what they do; in fact, they do it
on their own.
Jaquay Walls told the Denver Post
on Tuesday, “Someone’s trying to get
us in trouble for praying. For praying?
I can see if we were hurting someone.
That’s nonsense.”
Other Colorado players backed up
WaUs.
Said CU guard Josh Townsend:
“He (Patton) doesn’t force us to do
anything.”
If Patton was not present for these
prayers after practice, where CU play
ers kneel and join hands, the ACLU
would have no problem.
But just because Patton is present
and he participates with the team, it is
wrong.
Ridiculous is one word that comes
to mind.
There is a point where the
Constitution of the United States and
the First Amendment can become
something to uphold for the sake of
just doing it. This is one of those cases.
Boulder ACLy President Judd
Golden said the pfayers are driving a
wedge within the team, and that prayer
has no place on the basketball court.
I beg to differ.
Prayer at Colorado has done noth
ing more than bring the team together,
and make it a better environment for
the players.
The players play for Patton, who
acts as a father figure and is concerned
with their well-beings as people, and
not just how many rebounds they can
grab in a game.
Unity has been achieved at
Colorado. Vou can tell by the way they
play and stand by their coach.
Golden, in an interview with the
Daily Nebraskan, said that may be the
case this season, but in years to come
other players might feel differently. He
said because of Pattons practices and
beliefs, players of other religions (or
no religion at all) might be discour
aged from coming to Colorado.
So the Buffaloes miss out on a
recruit because he doesn’t want to
pray. Big deal. Worse things have hap
pened to the university, and it is not
like hundreds around the country
don’t do the same thing. Counting
high schools, it’s thousands.
Nebraska prays before and after
games. I don’t see the ACLU of
Nebraska pounding down Danny
Nee’s door-NU’s policy is similar to
CU’s.
The basketball team prays for like
their ability, that the visiting team
makes it home safely and that they did
what they had to do and honored the
Lord. Asking not to be a part of that
sounds pretty wrong to me.
But Golden said the prayer takes
away from the team experience, aiid
he will seek out legal options if CU
does not respond with action.
Colorado Athletic Director Dick
Tharp told the Denver Post that he
believed the ACLU was “off-base in
this particular instance.”
Golden said he is sorry Tharp sees
it that way, and that what is happening
is just not appropriate.
NU assistants Larry Gay and Cleo
Hill seemed perplexed when told of
Patton’s situation, and Hill added, “We
should probably pray more.”
Gay, who coached at Louisville
and Georgia before NU, admitted his
teams prayed at both schools. He also
said that as a player at Florida State, he
and his teammates prayed by them
selves. Gay said times have changed,
and it has become a more common
practice to pray as a team.
Cary Cochran, who leads NU in a
prayer “chant” before the Huskers take
the court every game, said that prayer,
as well as the one said after the game,
is voluntary.
Cochran also said his high school
teaml, coached by his father, said the
Lord’s Prayer before every gamer
“You don’t have to pray,” Cochran
said. “Praying was by no means asso
ciated with the school. It was just
something that if you wanted to do it,
you did it. He (my dad) wouldn’t hold
it against them if they didn’t.”
Patton wouldn’t either.
The bond that has formed at CU is
being severed by some politically cor
rect stiffs who ignore the fact that it is
ultimately the players’ choice whether
to participate or not.
The players at Colui ado just hap
pen to choose to do so.
Good for Patton and good for
them.
Joshua Caioenxind is sopho
more news-editorial major and a
Daily Nebraskan staff writer.