WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain on Tuesday said his opposition to legalized sports betting is not compromised by his presidential campaign Web site, which encourages visitors to join him in predicting winners in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
"I think there's a great deal of difference between setting up a Web site just like there's office pools all over America that have no benefit to the person (organizing the game)," McCain, R-Ariz., said.
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"Legislation that I proposed said that everything is legal as long as someone doesn't gain from it," he said.
Winners in McCain's contest qualify for a "McCain Fleece" jacket, a "McCain hat" or a "McCain pin."
McCain, who had just flown back to Washington from a presidential campaign stop in Tallahassee, Fla., declined to take further questions on the subject.
When he first ran for president in 2000, he launched a five-year effort to prohibit Nevada casinos from taking bets on amateur athletic events such as college football and college basketball.
McCain halted that effort in 2005 when he acknowledged Congress would not pass a sport betting ban until there was another gambling scandal in college sports. But he predicted there would be another scandal.
