Sport is made for betting

The basket case of the EU, Greece, has decided to move with the times and licence other gambling operators in the country in order to clear some of its monumental debts. Greeks are renowned for their love of betting but they've mostly had to do it through the local monopoly charging extortionate margins. But the government's attempt at coming up with a licensing regime is very ambitious in terms of the revenue it will bring in, and flawed in terms of how its regulations fit with EU law. Not only have they tried to block betting exchanges, but some of their other plans are just a wee bit extreme... Betfair files complaint with EC over Greek draft law Betfair has filed a complaint with the European Commission over the ban on betting exchanges contained within the Greek draft egaming law. Martin Cruddace, Betfair’s chief legal and regulatory officer, said: “Having played a constructive role in the preparatory phase of the draft Greek gaming law, we were disappointed with the...

Rumours abound this morning about the demise of RacingOdds (.com.au), the bookmaking arm of leviathan, or should it be big-mouth, Australian punter Sean Bartholomew. The website has disappeared (although other Aus firms have recently been subject to DDoS attacks and are still having issues), but there have been grave doubts about the longevity of this business for a while, with the proprietor believed to have been looking for a buyer for some time. If it is just hacker problems, then it's poor publicity for the company not to immediately send out emails to all clients reassuring them the firm is still operating, as Sportingbet and Sportsbet did last month. Punter funds will be safe - that's the benefit of the tight licensing laws in Australia. Each bookmaker puts up a hefty security bond with their licensing authority, to be distributed to punters in the event of financial insolvency. It is quite possible that Bartholomew has simply given up on an unviable business and clos...

So Delaware had a great idea to bring in legalised sports betting. After all, if Vegas is doing it, and other states like Oregon have it via a 'sports lottery', then why not Delaware? Particularly when the state is struggling with the recession like the rest of the world. Well, the state government approved it, then the nosey sports leagues ganged up on them and got it shut down. It defies all logic. Legalised and licensed gambling enables sporting authorities to have a money trail, so they can detect any attempted corruption and fraud. If you leave it to the illegal bookies in bars and on street corners, the ones who they will never be able to get rid of, then there is no means of detection. It's all underground and grubby. Legalising one or two state-licensed venues, which would have been taxed enough to keep the margins no more attractive than the outlaws in the Caribbean or on the street corner, and you have an audit trail. It's not as if these firms are going to ...

Like most countries, South Africa are concerned about their citizens spending their money offshore, particularly on gambling sites. It's not as if they are against gambling, after all, the horse racing industry is quite strong there, there are numerous sports and racing bookmakers and they have some massive casinos there. But of course, it's evil if the tax revenue is going abroad. I assume the licensing is meant for online casinos, this snippet from the article certainly makes it seem that way. Pointless having these restrictions for a sports or racing betting operation. South Africa: Authorities to Regulate Online Gambling Under the proposed regulations South Africans wanting to play online will have to open a nominated account with any South African bank which will be used solely for online gaming. Only credit cards can be used to make payments and the accounts will have to adhere to normal banking and Financial Intelligence Centre Act requirements. "We will work togeth...