Weekly integrity in sport update from INTERPOL 4-10 January 2016
This week we found out an interesting article explaining how the player's life can be affected by gambling addiction. In fact, gambling within players is becoming a big issue with regards to integrity in sports as the players become vulnerable to match-fixers.
This week there are many articles in the media regarding the betting legislation about the opportunity to legalize betting in India.
CURRENT INVESTIGATION
Canada
A potential match-fixing scandal is rocking the Canadian Soccer League, and a match involving SC Waterloo is at the centre of the latest allegations. The game between SC Waterloo and Niagara United, which happened on October 4th, 2015, was called off in the 65th minute after a series of incredulous circumstances. A Vice Sports report quotes several of Niagara’s players as accusing Waterloo of intentionally throwing the game, going as far as allowing Niagara to score on them, and then preventing Niagara’s players from scoring on their own net in an attempt to spoil the alleged fix.
“We don’t want to give them their money, forget it,” United midfielder John Bahdi told the outlet. “The ball goes out for a goal kick, our keeper quickly plays it to our right back and basically tells him, ‘Put it in our net, shoot on our net, put it in our own net.’ Our right back goes to put it in our own net, by the time he got to shoot it, they had three guys on our goal line and the ball gets kicked off our goal line.”
Source: Martin Bauman, "SC Waterloo implicated in soccer match-fixing allegations", 7 January 2016, 570 News, https://www.570news.com/2016/01/07/sc-waterloo-implicated-in-soccer-match-fixing-allegations/
LEGISLATION
India
The time has come for India to turn betting into a legal activity. It will not only help clean up cricket, but can also generate revenue for the government… Currently, betting in horse racing and lottery tickets are legal in India. So, why should betting on sports not be legalised, especially in cricket, which is being played and followed like a religion in this part of the world? Experts say it’s time betting in sports be made legal, as is the case in other European or developed countries. A Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team’s (SIT) report had stated that cricket betting is one of the key sources of black money generation. Even Justice Mukul Mudgal, former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, who probed the 2013 IPL and the spot-fixing scandal, had called for betting to be legalised to prevent transactions of huge amounts of black money in cricket betting. The people involved in betting rackets are not just linked to the underworld but the money is being used to fund terror groups. This alarming situation can be easily regulated and controlled if betting is made legal. The gambling industry comes under the ‘leisure’ section of the travel and transportation industry. It includes sports betting, lottery, bingo, casino, poker, horse-racing and other games that might end up making or losing money for those who play it. To widen the ambit of betting, stakes can also be placed on activities like wars, movies, the elections, TV shows, celebrities, etc. In India, betting-related activities could be restricted to sports initially to see its impact on society. Talking about cricket, match-fixing is a monster that has to be tamed and legalising betting will be a step in the right direction. It doesn’t pay any more to allow this menace to fester.
Source: AP, "Legalising betting", 6 January 2016, DNA India, https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/editorial-dnaedit-legalising-betting-2162632
