Legal lotteries and sports betting operators around the world offer punters an array of products and services on responsible gaming platforms, which also contribute to many good causes.
In contrast, illegal betting operators, who do not take measures to provide safe environments for players and do not contribute to good causes, continue to flourish. Technologies such as cryptocurrencies, which are accepted by many illegal operators offer players greater anonymity and encourage criminals to launder funds gained from illicit activities.
Experts help to clarify issues around illegal betting
Illegal betting is one of the key threats to integrity of horse racing and other sports and can greatly affect sports betting. Against this backdrop, the Asian Racing Federation Council on Anti-Illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime, recently released a report entitled The State of Illegal Betting, which aims to help government policy-makers, regulators, law enforcement officers and those involved in the governance of horse racing and other sports, as well as people in the racing and betting industries, better understand the current scale, scope, and harm to society of illegal betting and related financial crime.
The report assesses recent changes in illegal betting markets and predicts how they will change further in the coming years.
It begins by considering the differences and similarities of legal and illegal online betting websites and their regulation or lack thereof.
Experts from across the ecosystem of sports and sports betting, comment on different aspects of the complex world of illegal betting covering:
- white Labelling betting websites
- issues around corruption in racing and other sports
- organized crime involvement in illegal betting
- relationship between illegal betting, sports corruption and organized crime and the work carried out by law enforcement agencies, sports and sports betting stakeholders
- sports law relating to illegal betting
- the relationship between illegal betting and problem gambling.
More about the report
The ARF Council analyzed 534 betting websites licensed in 61 jurisdictions to explore the differences and similarities of licensed and unlicensed online betting operators and their level of regulation or lack thereof.
The report contains data on punter demographics, sports betting trends and more. Download the report here.
