Illegal Sports Betting on London Summer Olympics

The British love to bet on sports. And the British gambling laws fully allow for that. What the laws don’t allow for is game-fixing.

Now, the Brits as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) work on preventive measures against game-fixing during London 2012 Summer Olympics which are just around the corner.The Olympic officials and athletes aren’t allowed to bet on these. Moreover, any suspicious activities will be reported and investigated.

These could include unusual bets placed on particular events or strange athletic behavior. Interpol will be looking, too. This way the punters placing their stakes at one or more of the online sportsbooks in UK, or elsewhere, will feel more confident that the games on which their bets were placed will not be fixed, and if so, then to the minimum while the perpetrators get punished.

The bookmakers will also analyze the bets placed on the markets they keep open. Any really suspicious activity could result in the bets being suspended. This actually will be good for small markets, but what about large ones? That is tougher to do.

The IOC would like to see the police eradicate the illegal bookmaking. Unfortunately, this is a worldwide phenomenon and even shutting down and arresting some operators will not kill this industry. In a place of the closed illegal sports betting dens, new ones will open.

Nowadays, with mobile betting, punters can place bets at any time. Hopefully, this will take some business from the illicit establishments while giving them less ammunition to pay for game-fixing.