But IOC President Admits Illegal Sports Betting Difficult to Determine
ACAPULCO, MEXICO - With still two years away before the 2012 London Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is already working on how to fend off illegal sports gambling by partnering closely with governments and betting companies.
At a news conference held by the IOC last Sunday, the IOC stated the while there were no reports of athletes involved in illegal gambling in previous Olympic games, steps had to be undertaken to ensure such acts never occur.
According to IOC President Jacques Rogge:
"There used to be a time, a long time ago now, when people used to say there was no illegal doping in their country. There is illegal betting in every country in the world. Some are more effective (in preventing it) than others but not necessarily free of this new scourge of sports."
Rogge said the IOC was counting on the help of governments and betting organizations to curb illegal gambling by alerting the IOC to any suspicious activity.
Rogge said:
"We are also helped by betting partners and the flow of money going into these bets, but it's not black and white and sometimes difficult to look at."
The IOC president further added that figuring out that illegal betting is happening is quite difficult given that more and more bettors now bet on one particular aspect of the game and not whether a team wins or loses.
He explains:
"It could be a run in cricket, it could be a double-fault in tennsi, it could be a corner in the first two minutes of a football match. It is very difficult to judge this."
Source: Yahoo News
