Black Market Sports Betting: 1

Sports’ betting is a huge part of the online casino world. Recently the Associated Press reported that there is an investigation lead by an internal agency based out of Switzerland in order to fight illegal gambling. The Zurich, Switzerland based scandal is one that has been a long time coming because of there have been questions raised about the organization running the regulation of sports’ betting in online casinos. The reason why this is such a big deal in Switzerland is that criminals make billions of dollars each year due to illegal gambling and criminal gangs. This was a topic that was thoroughly discussed at a conference in Switzerland and was said to be threatening the integrity of online sports betting as an industry.

At this conference, several online casino betting leaders gave their thoughts and suggestions on the situation. There is a definite need for regulation. The online casinos and land based casino companies are currently trying to get the support of international organizations like the International Olympic Committee and FIFA so they can get a little more leverage when they approach their government officials with a regulation plan for the national betting markets. Illegal gambling is a threat to the gambling industry and the heads of the industry are not taking this lying down. They are suggesting that there be an official body that investigates these corruption claims for all sports betting in Europe.

This may or may not be a possibility for online casino domain owners to achieve. One of the leaders at the conference held in order to discuss the crisis at hand, Paul Scotney, who is the head of British Horseracing Authority’s integrity unit said, "What you will need in years to come is something like WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), an agency that investigates betting-related corruption across all the sports." Leader of online casinos would have to get the power of the heavy hitters behind them in order to get the attention they need. The Chief Executive Officer of Bwim International, Norbert Teufelberger said, "FIFA and the IOC obviously have huge power deciding which countries will receive the next World Cup or Olympic Games. Our idea would be that only countries with a modern, regulated sports betting regime can be part of that family and organize those events."