United Nations Points Finger at Online Betting For Rampant Rise in Match Fixing

ICSS linked to declaration that criminal elements launder more than$140b a year.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on Wednesday lashed out at online betting, saying it holds it responsible for the rise in match-fixing. UNODC has declared war on match-fixing by partnering up with the International Center for Sport Security (ICSS). Just recently the Vietnam’s football federation announced that it would implement a life-long ban on six players from playing football, as they were found guilty of match-fixing in 2014, a crime under EU gambling laws and in Vietnam too.

Yury Fedotov, executive director of UNODC said at the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Doha, Qatar, that match-fixing was “an issue of public trust” that called for ‘tailor-made legislative responses and effective investigative powers.” Both UNODC and ICSS are working together to boost attempts by “a particular focus on capacity building and the development of technical tools.”

The UNODC stated that without a doubt match-fixing was “linked to the rise of online gambling, which increased the number of people with direct economic interest in sport competition.” It went on to state that match-fixing via illegal betting on online sportsbooks in the EU and worldwide “have grown into a huge transnational business worth billions of dollars.”

Qatar is home to ICSS, where the number of high-net worth individuals increased by 300% in 2014. Just last May ICSS focused heavily on a claim whereby online betting on sports was a very clever method of money laundering. In a report, over $140 billion was said to be laundered every year via the online gaming industry.