September 26, 2016

Time to Reconsider Ban on Sports Betting?

An advisory group put together by the American Gaming Association recently recommended ending the federal ban against sports betting.

Sports gambling outside of Las Vegas is currently prohibited by federal law, according to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. However, the time has come for an open and regulated sports betting market. “It’s time to reconsider that national ban,” said Tim Murphy, former deputy director of the FBI and Chair of the advisory group.

States should have the right to decide whether to offer sports betting, recently recommended the board. In a bid to repeal the current legislation the group is set to lobby on Capitol Hill.

The American Gaming Association formed in 2015 and was launched as an initiative to expose the massive illegal gambling market. Murphy, the former FBI Deputy Director, said findings will be shared with legislators and stakeholders “so we can at least spur the critical national dialogue on this topic and get people involved and give them insight into how and why this needs to be changed.”

September 20, 2016

Barton investigated for betting on a Celtic match with Betfair

Rangers midfielder Joey Barton is reportedly being investigated for alleged betting on a Celtic match with Betfair, that is said to have been placed on his personal account.

The Scottish Football Association does not allow players, coaches, club officials and referees to bet on any football globally.

Barton is already in hot water with his club after picking up a three week ban for a recent training ground bust up.

The row is said to have been with manager Mark Warburton after Rangers, who are sponsored by 32Red, suffered a heavy 5-1 defeat in the Old Firm derby. The bet in question was allegedly placed by Barton on Celtic to lose by at least three goals in their following match to Barcelona; a bet he’d have won if so as the Bhoys went on to be hammered 7-0.

The Gambling Commission are now believed to be investigating the matter, and that both Rangers and Barton have been notified that the probe has been launched.

The Commission will present its case to the SFA. The report will then be presented to compliance officer Tony McGlennan, and it’ll be McGlennan that will decide on the outcome for Barton.

New Online Gambling Licenses In Greece To Be Released in October

Greece’s new licensing system for online gambling operators is set to be implemented by October. Deputy Finance Minister, Trifon Alexiadis, confirmed that the new rules would be made public “within a month”.

In 2011, Greek ran an experiment by issuing 24 “temporary” licenses to online gambling sites. The licenses were later suspended as the Greek government aimed to increase the betting monopoly that OPAP had. The government then sold one-third of the stake of the company. Alexiadis explained that this was to stop worldwide gambling operators from making profit while evading Greek’s taxes.

The experiment also revealed that many operators were producing false reports of their revenues. The Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) surveyed the operators on their revenues and turnovers. Alexiadis said that public documents from these operators showed discrepancies compared to declared revenues.

Alexiadis also stated that the newer regulations were more optimized and put a cap on how much operators could earn from Greek betters. New regulations required foreign payment providers to report to the Greek authorities thus making it easier to track financial transactions from users to foreign operators.

Interestingly, many operators might be reluctant to apply for a license as Greek has a massive 35% punitive tax rate on gambling revenue. OPAP, the current monopoly in Greek gambling has also fallen victim to the new tax and reported a decrease in profits of 36% in Q2 of this year. The company clarified that if it wasn’t for the tax, profits would have risen 2% instead.

The EEEP has also been making efforts to curb online gambling without authorization and has recently started blocking more and more sites. As of August, 847 sites have been blacklisted by the EEEP. At the beginning of this year, the number of blocked sites was nearly half that.