Inside Asian Gaming

May 2014 inside asian gaming 29 There are obviously benefits to the country in terms of pulling that money out of the black economy. What other benefits would legalized gambling bring? A lot of benefits. Illegal operations will always exist, even after regulation, but the tools to fight them will be much more effective when regulation exists. What the government has to think about is to regulate the sector with the objective of taking away business from illegal operations, so those proceeds can be used to protect the community, promote sports in the country, protect sporting integrity, protect the young and vulnerable against unwise betting behavior, generate a fair industry that provides entertainment in a controlled and responsible way, and, of course, to give proper tools to the authorities to fight against criminality. In a regulated environment the licenced bookies themselves will be the first ones who will not want any matches to be fixed, so the information between police departments, authorities and the bookies themselves will be very transparent. Whenever they see a betting pattern which is not normal they will share it with relevant state police, the regulatory investigator, et cetera. So regulating it would bring light to the issue and will clean up the mess a bit. As of now it’s clear that policing has not been effective. Albert Climent can be reached at albert@bluesea-gaming.com . “The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry is one of the leading voices in favor of regulating sports betting.”