New Sports Betting Integrity Unit to be created in Australia

The government of Australia continues its gambling reform strategy and an obvious plan to crack down betting actions…

…so now the lawmakers consider introducing even more strict rules for the sports betting industry.

Illegal Gambling

According to the statistics, the illegal gambling market could, in the next year, reach around AU$2 billion. So, the lawmakers decided to establish a national watchdog that would stand in the way of cheating and setting up match results on sporting events.

The main target of this regulatory body would be corruption in sports and will work against a lack of integrity in the sports wagering industry…

…that came as a result of online and unregulated betting markets.

James Wood, a former police corruption royal commissioner, raised his concerns about organized crime and corruption in Australian sports, so the supervision became more than necessary in this area.

New Commission

The government of the Land Down Under will also constitute a new national sports integrity commission…

…that will control sports corruption and potential fixing of the match results.

The date set for the official inauguration of this commission is expected to be somewhere around July of next year.

The plan is to bring together the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASDA), as well as state and federal policy agency. The regulatory bodies should work together and combine their data to work more efficiently on different sports industries.

The New Regime

Sal Perna, the Victorian Racing Integrity Commissioner, is one of the possible candidates…

…as well as a former federal police assistant commissioner and current CEO of ASADA, David Sharpe.

The newly-formed commission will have three main responsibilities:

• regulation of sports gambling
• monitoring and investigating potential illegal drug activities
• helping sports leagues to create policies for the provision of integrity

The new Sports Betting Integrity Unit will be created within the commission and will have the task to monitor ALL potentially wary gambling activities. The unit will have the authorization to electronically surveil coaches, sports officials and all athletes that seem suspicious.

Australia Bans Lottery Bets

In March of 2018, Australia introduced new legislation that prohibits betting on lottery games and placing online lottery bets on international websites. The ban was introduced…

…because clubs and newsagents who were selling paper lottery tickets began losing money.

“The government has formed the view that permitting betting on these services, also known as ‘synthetic’ lotteries, undermines the longstanding community acceptance of official lottery and keno products. These products enjoy community as they generate an income stream for small retail businesses and make a significant contribution, through license fees and taxation, to the provision of public services and infrastructure by state and territory governments,” Australia’s Communication Minister, Mitch Fifield, commented.

Also, in 2017, the government forbid all online casinos to offer bonuses and free credits. The new rules were the country’s latest efforts against online casinos and their rapid expansion.

Source:

“New Sports Betting Integrity Unit to be created in Australia”, Eric Gibbs, calvinayre.com, January 31, 2019.