Inside Asian Gaming

IAG MAY 2023年5月 亞博匯 58 managing the risk of corruption. A sport can have its head office, for want of a better expression, approved by the Victorian gaming regulator as a “sports controlling body” but only if it has put in place adequate integrity procedures and it has shown it will act on integrity concerns. Examples of expected integrity procedures include (a) a ban on all players, club officials, referees and player managers from placing bets on their sport, and (b) sports having documented rules of games which clarify how results are determined. At first blush, this seems obvious. What is necessary, though, is for there to be clear rules for unusual or unexpected circumstances. For example, how is a result determined if the lights go out during an outdoor night match, or if the weather intervenes, or if there is a pitch invasion? Does it make a difference if the game has just started or was just about to finish? Thirdly, once approved as a sports controlling body – and the Victorian gaming regulator has approved 13 sports controlling bodies – licensed betting companies must have the sport’s approval before offering bets on that sport’s product. To get that approval, sports compel licensed betting companies to agree to integrity procedures such as exchange of information about suspicious betting patterns. Betting companies are also required to monitor the betting activities of the sports’ players, club officials, referees and player managers. Furthermore, the sports also require the betting companies to pay a fee which is used to help fund the sports’ integrity management costs. If the sports controlling body and a betting company cannot come to a suitable agreement, the betting company can ask the Victorian gaming regulator to intervene. This provision prevents sports entering into exclusive arrangements with one betting company. Fourthly, approved sports controlling bodies can restrict betting on options they consider to be too risky from an integrity point of view or because it would not be in the public interest. Examples of a betting market which would be considered to be not in the public interest might be betting on player injuries. The Victorian gaming regulator also has the power to ban particular COLUMNISTS