FED:Athletes to be named, shamed and jailed

AAP General News (Australia)
05-14-2011
FED:Athletes to be named, shamed and jailed

By Doug Conway, AAP Senior Correspondent

SYDNEY, May 14 AAP - Ten-year jail terms and the "naming and shaming" of athletes and
officials are among measures Australian sports bosses want to combat the $140 billion-a-year
illegal betting industry.

Federal Sports Minister Mark Arbib and Australian Olympic Committee President John
Coates believe match-fixing is the big new threat to the integrity of world sport, just
as doping was in the 1980s and 90s.

Coates has called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to set up a national sports betting
authority, in a similar way to the establishment of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping
Authority.

At Saturday's AOC annual general meeting in Sydney he called for federal legislation
to give the authority powers to:

- record the names of offending athletes, officials, clubs and third parties of ill-repute
on a public register, that is to "name and shame" them;

- phone tap and seize information, with exemption from privacy legislation;

- share information with police, the tax office and international authorities;

- establish minimum penalties across sports at all levels, including club level, and
suspend bodies who do not apply them.

Senator Arbib told AOC delegates he supported suggestions canvassed by the NSW Law
Reform Commission for prison terms of up to 10 years.

He will discuss the move with state sports ministers at a meeting in June.

"The Gillard government recognises urgent action on this issue is critical," Senator Arbib said.

"In Australia we have seen recent incidents that have highlighted the threat from match-fixing.

"Getting action, when there are different laws in each state and territory and different
views, will not be easy and it won't come quickly.

"But we are going to take the toughest stance possible.

"The sports betting industry has risen so quickly, especially on the internet, that
legislation has not kept up with it."

Toughened anti-gambling clauses will be included in team membership agreements athletes
must sign before the 2012 London Olympics.

Coates said: "If the agreements do not already make it clear that being involved in
betting or gambling on the Games or themselves, or providing inside information for such
activities, is conduct we will not tolerate, they will now."

The AOC has barred Australian athletes from betting on the Olympics since before the
Sydney 2000 Games.

Coates said the ultimate power held by Olympic chiefs was to "terminate the team membership"

and send home any person found to have brought themselves or their sport into disrepute.

IOC President Jacques Rogge has warned over the past year of the serious threat that
irregular and illegal betting poses to sport and society.

"We have no issue with legal betting," he has said.

"Betting on sporting events is as old as sport itself.

"Reputable betting firms are our allies in this effort.

"The legitimate sports gambling industry is built on a foundation of confidence in
the integrity of sport.

"If that confidence is shaken, the entire industry is threatened."

The IOC convened a meeting on the issue in Lausanne in March, which Coates attended,
and a working group will meet again there next month.

AAP dc/rj

KEYWORD: OLY BETTING WRAP

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