The results of the ongoing international investigation into the fixing of football matches reveal a far-reaching system that has affected hundreds of games. They also show that efforts by UEFA and FIFA to combat match-fixing have been a failure, as have attempts to arrest the scandal's primary suspect.
Wilson Raj Perumal landed his biggest coup in February of 2011. It was the product of weeks of planning, according to documents from the Finnish public prosecutor's office. A native of Singapore, Perumal had traveled widely, meeting with soccer officials and arranging a site to stage two international friendlies. According to court documents, he then bribed six referees in order to guarantee the results he wanted.
The two matches, with the Bolivian national team beating Latvia 2:1, the other a 2:2 draw between Estonia and Bulgaria, were played one after the other in the Turkish coastal town of Antalya. And they ended just as Perumal had planned. Of particular note on that day: Every single one of the goals was the result of a penalty.
"We all had a strange feeling," former German national player Lothar Matthäus, who was the Bulgarian trainer at the time, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We knew that something wasn't quite right. But I didn't think that a manipulation on that scale was possible."
Perumal was arrested in Finland not long after the matches, and he ultimately became a key source of information as investigators delved into what has emerged to be a massive match-fixing scandal. On Monday, Europol head Rob Wainright announced the preliminary results of a broad investigation into corruption in global soccer, saying officials had identified some 680 games suspected to have been manipulated, involving some 425 players, referees and other officials. Many of the matches that were fixed were lower league clashes. But the list also includes World Cup qualification games as well as Champions League fixtures.
'No Measurable Success'
A large number of the matches, including those fixed by Perumal, were already known to have been manipulated. Most of the 70 rigged games that took place in Germany were also no secret. But Wainright's announcement, the product of a lengthy and ongoing Europol investigation, revealed the breadth of the problem facing European soccer and also threw light on the degree to which organized crime, particularly in Asia, has targeted football.
How, though, could such a broad scandal of illicitness be possible? FIFA head Sepp Blatter, after all, announced a "zero tolerance" policy on match manipulation two years ago and invested in an "early warning system" to identify suspicious betting patterns.
But Friedhelm Althans, a chief investigator from the German city of Bochum and one of the world's leading experts on sports betting scandals, indicated that such measures had been a failure. At the Monday press conference, he said that systems installed by FIFA and the European football organization UEFA "had remained thus far without any measurable success." It was a scathing verdict.
The two football associations had had high hopes for a software system that was designed to highlight instances of suspicious betting activity and spreads around the world. A former UEFA employee, who assisted in setting up the system, said that the warning system functioned such that "when someone bets a high amount on a match, an amount of money that is much higher than the average bet, then the system calls attention to the match as endangered." But the former UEFA employee, who asked not to be identified, said that the system was "essentially blind" in cases where "many, smaller bets are made at several different sports betting shops."
The two market leaders -- Sportradar, which is used by UEFA and Early Warning System (EWS), preferred by FIFA -- also have a much larger deficit, according to the UEFA insider. "They recognized almost exclusively the large and mid-sized betting shops in Europe. The many smaller, and sometimes semi-legal and illegal betting companies in Asia have no interest in cooperating with the official associations," the former UEFA employee said.
Easy to Avoid
Yet it is those companies that are responsible for much of the illegal betting activity. Ante Sapina and Marijo Cvrtak, both of whom were sentenced in Germany to five years behind bars for match manipulation between 2006 and 2008, were convicted of having placed large bets in Asia via a middleman in an English betting shop. Both have appealed.
"The early warning systems are completely toothless. At most, it is just a nice business where some people can earn some good money," says a former employee of Interpol. "But real bet manipulators, particularly the hardcore in Asia, find them easy to avoid." Both EWS and Sportradar declined to comment for this article.
The two international friendlies arranged by Perumal in Antalya, of course, were easier to spot than most. Because of the way the goals were all scored, the two games were immediately considered suspicious. But the system that Perumal was a part of has yet to be fully uncovered to this day, despite assistance provided by Perumal himself.
It is a system thought to be run by a man named Dan T (German media standards prohibit identifying a suspected criminal by his or her full name). Underlings such as Perumal found sports marketing companies which then approach national football associations about the rights to hold matches. They guarantee lodging and travel expenses for the players and deal with marketing and broadcasting rights. They also provide the referees and the host teams, which can be extensively manipulated.
"Most football associations are broke and welcome this kind of an offer," Perumal reportedly told investigators when he was behind bars in Finland. Betting scandal experts believe that Perumal ended up in prison primarily because he had become too powerful for T. He told Finnish investigators that he is willing to testify because T. allegedly double-crossed him.
Losing the Match-Fixing War
The information that Perumal has provided over the past year and a half has assisted prosecutors from around Europe to better understand the manipulation system operated by T. His testimony was likewise the basis for much of the information released by Europol at the Monday press conference in The Hague.
Via Perumal's testimony, T. has become the most important piece in the global match-fixing puzzle. "Perumal wasn't T.'s only employee. He still has a whole team of shareholders. They split the bribery payments for referees and teams, thus keeping their own risk relatively manageable," an investigator told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The distribution of profits, however, is more complicated. "T. calculates the winnings from each successfully manipulated game and then disperses payments on a percentage basis. We estimate his assets to be close to €200 million," the investigator said.
T. is thought to have divided his employees up by region and responsibility. Whereas Perumal was primarily responsible for international friendlies, others work at the regional level. Recently, suspected middlemen working for T. were arrested in both Hungary and Italy. Both, however, have thus far remained silent.
T. has denied all accusations levied against him. Still, it is difficult to imagine how he remains free, given the amount of evidence that has been gathered against him and given the international warrant for his arrest issued by Interpol. "T. has created an extremely complicated network of companies," on investigator told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It is extremely difficult to pin individual transgressions on him. Furthermore, Singapore is not cooperating to the degree that we had hoped. T. is a very influential person in his country."
The investigative journalist Declan Hill, one of the first to identify systematic manipulation of sports betting from Asia, wrote recently on his blog that arresting T. should be the top priority. "What will happen if Dan T. is not arrested?" Hill writes, before answering his own question. "We will lose the war against match-fixing."
February 05, 2013
Match-fixing: How gambling is destroying sport
It was not a big surprise.
Before I explain why there were no big surprises, let us step back for a moment, and explain how we got to this situation.
We have all heard the news of the shocking Europol media conference on Monday revealing hundreds of fixed football matches. However, all of this excitement begs a key question - why now? What is going on in international football, indeed many other sports, that means we are suddenly hearing all this talk of fixing?
Fixing and corruption in sport has a long history. If you were to go to the site of the ancient Olympics in Greece you would find, outside the ruins of the stadium, remains of statues to their Gods. The statues were paid for by athletes and coaches who were caught cheating. Sports corruption goes back at least 2,800 years and some type of corruption will be with us for as long we continue to hold competitive sports. It is simply a part of human nature.
However, we of this generation, are facing something almost entirely new. It is a contemporary form of match-fixing - as if someone had taken fixing and injected it with steroids.
It is an utterly modern phenomenon and if we do not fight it properly, it will destroy many sports as we know them. This new form of corruption will, like a tsunami, sweep aside all other issues and leave some sports dead and destroyed.
The key to the new form of fixing is globalisation. In the last ten years, the sports gambling market has - like the music and travel industry - been utterly transformed. Now, gamblers in any part of the world can place a bet on almost any professional sports event in almost any country of the world.
What this means is that the Asian gambling market, which is far, far bigger than the European and North American market, has a huge amount of cash to bet on small matches. Today, at their press conference, Europol said the biggest amount gambled on one of the fixed matches had been £121,000.
This is peanuts. The Asian gambling market is measured in billions of dollars. Fixers working inside the Asian gambling market have destroyed much of the sport on that continent, so now they are turning their attention to other countries.
There are about 20 to 30 fixers who travel the world fixing sporting events. They regard themselves as "brokers" rather than fixers. They form alliances with local criminals, who in turn are able to form connections with corrupt players, referees and team officials.
The Asian criminals deal with fixing the gambling market by placing bets in such a way that no-one suspects the games are fixed. In this way, there is a network of corruption that stretches quite literally around the world.
The fixers have operated in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and, particularly, Europe. There is now a line of badly affected leagues that is slowly moving west across Europe. Essentially, they dovetail with the former Soviet Empire, so countries like Bulgaria, Poland or Hungary have all been badly hit. Few football fans in those countries regard their sport with any degree of serious credibility.
However, it is not exclusively an ex-Soviet phenomenon - Turkey, Greece and Italy have also been hit with massive corruption scandals. What the current Europol investigation clearly demonstrates is that the line is moving closer to the UK.
For example, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Finland have all had scandals linked to fixed matches. This summer Norway had its first taste of the infamy that the fixers can bring to a league when there were suspicious matches in their third division.
The line taken by many British football fans has always been "only foreigners are corrupt". This is dangerously naive. A non-corrupt league is like the myth of the "unsinkable ship". It does not exist. There will always be, as the ancient Greeks knew, some risk of corruption.
I do not mean that there is rampant fixing in British football. But I do mean that the British leagues have a very small window of opportunity to get themselves ready to fight off this new form of corruption.
Football officials must start to put into place new forms of protection for the game. One defence is a proper and well-resourced anti-addiction program for players and referees. Gambling is part of the culture for many young British players and some of them risk, and lose, a staggering amount of their wages in gambling.
The Football Associations need to establish problem-gambling counselling and a clause in the players' contracts that allows them to seek help for addictive behaviour without it damaging their professional success. They need to back this up with a full-time integrity officer and a well-designed hotline for sports people to be able to anonymously report corrupt approaches.
If the British Football Associations implement these reforms, they stand a good chance of being able to beat back the modern form of fixing. If not, then UK football may be hit with a major scandal on its own shores.
Before I explain why there were no big surprises, let us step back for a moment, and explain how we got to this situation.
We have all heard the news of the shocking Europol media conference on Monday revealing hundreds of fixed football matches. However, all of this excitement begs a key question - why now? What is going on in international football, indeed many other sports, that means we are suddenly hearing all this talk of fixing?
Fixing and corruption in sport has a long history. If you were to go to the site of the ancient Olympics in Greece you would find, outside the ruins of the stadium, remains of statues to their Gods. The statues were paid for by athletes and coaches who were caught cheating. Sports corruption goes back at least 2,800 years and some type of corruption will be with us for as long we continue to hold competitive sports. It is simply a part of human nature.
However, we of this generation, are facing something almost entirely new. It is a contemporary form of match-fixing - as if someone had taken fixing and injected it with steroids.
It is an utterly modern phenomenon and if we do not fight it properly, it will destroy many sports as we know them. This new form of corruption will, like a tsunami, sweep aside all other issues and leave some sports dead and destroyed.
The key to the new form of fixing is globalisation. In the last ten years, the sports gambling market has - like the music and travel industry - been utterly transformed. Now, gamblers in any part of the world can place a bet on almost any professional sports event in almost any country of the world.
What this means is that the Asian gambling market, which is far, far bigger than the European and North American market, has a huge amount of cash to bet on small matches. Today, at their press conference, Europol said the biggest amount gambled on one of the fixed matches had been £121,000.
This is peanuts. The Asian gambling market is measured in billions of dollars. Fixers working inside the Asian gambling market have destroyed much of the sport on that continent, so now they are turning their attention to other countries.
There are about 20 to 30 fixers who travel the world fixing sporting events. They regard themselves as "brokers" rather than fixers. They form alliances with local criminals, who in turn are able to form connections with corrupt players, referees and team officials.
The Asian criminals deal with fixing the gambling market by placing bets in such a way that no-one suspects the games are fixed. In this way, there is a network of corruption that stretches quite literally around the world.
The fixers have operated in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and, particularly, Europe. There is now a line of badly affected leagues that is slowly moving west across Europe. Essentially, they dovetail with the former Soviet Empire, so countries like Bulgaria, Poland or Hungary have all been badly hit. Few football fans in those countries regard their sport with any degree of serious credibility.
However, it is not exclusively an ex-Soviet phenomenon - Turkey, Greece and Italy have also been hit with massive corruption scandals. What the current Europol investigation clearly demonstrates is that the line is moving closer to the UK.
For example, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Finland have all had scandals linked to fixed matches. This summer Norway had its first taste of the infamy that the fixers can bring to a league when there were suspicious matches in their third division.
The line taken by many British football fans has always been "only foreigners are corrupt". This is dangerously naive. A non-corrupt league is like the myth of the "unsinkable ship". It does not exist. There will always be, as the ancient Greeks knew, some risk of corruption.
I do not mean that there is rampant fixing in British football. But I do mean that the British leagues have a very small window of opportunity to get themselves ready to fight off this new form of corruption.
Football officials must start to put into place new forms of protection for the game. One defence is a proper and well-resourced anti-addiction program for players and referees. Gambling is part of the culture for many young British players and some of them risk, and lose, a staggering amount of their wages in gambling.
The Football Associations need to establish problem-gambling counselling and a clause in the players' contracts that allows them to seek help for addictive behaviour without it damaging their professional success. They need to back this up with a full-time integrity officer and a well-designed hotline for sports people to be able to anonymously report corrupt approaches.
If the British Football Associations implement these reforms, they stand a good chance of being able to beat back the modern form of fixing. If not, then UK football may be hit with a major scandal on its own shores.
February 04, 2013
888 posts double digit increases
888 Holdings oversaw a double-digit rise in revenue in 2012 as the business continues to enjoy success in a number of different jurisdictions. Revenue was up 13 percent to US$376million for the full year with the company’s B2C operations enjoying an excellent year. B2C poker increased revenue by 44 percent to $88million with B2C casino revenue enjoying a similarly lucrative year as revenue rose 12 percent to $US165m. B2C bingo had a slightly disappointing year as revenue dropped 4 percent to $52m. The company’s B2C revenue from their “Emerging Offering” more than made up for it with a rise of 16 percent to US$25m. Part of this were two markets in Souther Europe that were alluded to in comments from CEO Brian Mattingley.
“Our success in Spain and Italy shows that we have the right product and technology led marketing to make significant inroads into new markets, and we will look to repeat that success in other regulating territories,” said Mattingley. “In addition we are experiencing a significant increase in customer recruitment and revenue from mobile platforms and, given our focus and commitment to investment in mobile, see this is as just the beginning of an increasing trend. 2013 has started strongly and we therefore remain confident of future growth.”
The company also released figures for the final quarter of the year that showed group revenue rising by 7 percent to US$97m. B2C revenue rose 9 percent to US$86m with poker increasing by 31 percent to $24m as a part of that and casino revenue increasing by 6 percent to $44m.
One disappointing part of the company was their B2B brand, Dragonfish, which saw a decline in revenue of 2 percent for both the full year and fourth quarter. Apart from that the results were a very good set with Mattingley and pals likely to be very happy with them. The only thing that might make them happier is the US online poker market opening up – and it won’t just be them that are smiling ear-to-ear should that take place in 2013.
“Our success in Spain and Italy shows that we have the right product and technology led marketing to make significant inroads into new markets, and we will look to repeat that success in other regulating territories,” said Mattingley. “In addition we are experiencing a significant increase in customer recruitment and revenue from mobile platforms and, given our focus and commitment to investment in mobile, see this is as just the beginning of an increasing trend. 2013 has started strongly and we therefore remain confident of future growth.”
The company also released figures for the final quarter of the year that showed group revenue rising by 7 percent to US$97m. B2C revenue rose 9 percent to US$86m with poker increasing by 31 percent to $24m as a part of that and casino revenue increasing by 6 percent to $44m.
One disappointing part of the company was their B2B brand, Dragonfish, which saw a decline in revenue of 2 percent for both the full year and fourth quarter. Apart from that the results were a very good set with Mattingley and pals likely to be very happy with them. The only thing that might make them happier is the US online poker market opening up – and it won’t just be them that are smiling ear-to-ear should that take place in 2013.
UK Bookies avoid £1bn tax
Bookmakers and casinos have avoided paying around £1bn in UK tax on bets placed by British people by routing them through subsidiaries based in overseas tax havens.
Football, racing and poker betting operators are estimated to be saving around £250m a year by offshoring online gambling – more than the highly publicised recent cases of tax avoidance by Starbucks and Amazon.
Although William Hill and Ladbrokes are UK Plcs with hundreds of high street branches, bets placed on their websites and phone lines are regulated and taxed in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
Other big names such as Betfair, PaddyPower and 888 – which heavily market their games in the UK – also avoid paying British tax on "remote" betting and gaming.
The offshoring, which has grown in recent years, allows operators to replace the UK gambling duty of 15 per cent on gross profits with an effective rate of duty of less than one per cent.
All of the top 10 operators in "remote gambling" now headquarter a part or all of their operations in Gibraltar, the Isle of Man or Guernsey – at a cost to the Treasury of £1bn in lost duty since 2009.
The figures dwarf the tens of millions of pounds of tax avoided by Starbucks and Amazon, which have attracted heavy criticism for minimising corporation tax through the use of sweetheart deals in Luxembourg and Switzerland. Yet the Treasury – which is imposing cuts to public services as part of the Government's austerity drive – does not intend to close the betting duty loophole for almost two years.
It is currently consulting on a new gambling duty centred on "point of consumption" – taxing where the bet was placed – rather than where it was taken ("point of supply"), with the intention of introducing the change in December 2014.
The top indigenous British bookmakers say that for years they tried to warn the Government they were being pushed offshore by the UK's "uncompetitive" tax rate in an increasingly global trade.
However, they are also aware that publicity about the amount of money being diverted from the Exchequer by their move to Gibraltar and other places could play badly with the public.
In a statement, William Hill, which saves an estimated £37m annually in betting duty, vigorously denied it was "engaged in any avoidance scheme or artificial tax structure".
Ladbrokes, which saves around £18m annually, said it had only moved offshore reluctantly "to survive and compete".
However, disclosure of the scale of the money lost to the UK Government across the entire industry is likely to provoke anger, at a time of austerity caused by a growing deficit in the public finances. Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research, said: "This indicates, yet again, the toothless approach of the UK's tax authorities to tax avoidance."
Signs that gambling taxation would fail to tackle the rise of the internet first emerged a decade ago. To counter growing foreign competition from gaming sites headquartered in Gibraltar and Malta, in 2001 Gordon Brown replaced betting duty of 6.75 per cent on stake money to a 15 per cent duty on bookmakers' gross profits.
Leading British bookies were widely reported to have entered into a "gentlemen's agreement" with the then Chancellor to move their putative offshore operations back on shore – which they did. But, undercut by rivals based in tax havens, particularly those operating casino sites, in 2009 William Hill, Ladbrokes and SkyBet moved their online and phone business offshore. In 2011, Betfair, the fast-growing betting exchange, joined the exodus by relocating to Gibraltar, telling investors it expected to save £20m in tax annually. Only two major UK gambling companies – Bet365, a family firm based in Stoke-on-Trent, and Sky – pay UK duty on sports betting, although their casino games are located, respectively, in Gibraltar and Alderney.
The Government's current plan is to force companies taking bets from Britons to obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission or risk having their websites and advertising blocked. However the Treasury, which would have to enact the change in a parliamentary Bill, does not expect to introduce the change before December next year and is still considering the results of a consultation which closed last summer.
Several gambling companies are fiercely opposed to the move, arguing that a 15 per cent rate would endanger a British success story.
Other operators back the change in an industry associated with social problems. The Coates family, which owns Bet365, wants the new tax to be introduced as quickly as possible. Ian Burke, chief executive of Blue Square-owner Rank Group, said that the current system of taxation was "indefensible". The Treasury defended its record, saying: "The Government is levelling the playing field on remote gambling taxation. This is a major reform, and the first time a UK Government is taxing remote gambling companies with no base in the UK."
Labour's shadow Treasury spokeswoman, Catherine McKinnell, said: "The offshore gambling industry is making massive profits from tax-paying UK punters and yet hundreds of millions of pounds are potentially being lost to the Exchequer at the same time as ordinary taxpayers are being hit hard by cuts and tax rises.
"It isn't just UK taxpayers who are paying the price – responsible firms who have remained in the UK and employ thousands of people are at an unfair disadvantage. The Government should be straining every sinew to clamp down on aggressive tax avoidance, and loopholes, as quickly as possible."
Mr Murphy added that the Treasury's approach of working in co-operation with business to secure tax agreements was "not working".
"We know it failed in the case of banking where Barclays ignored their deal with HMRC months after they signed it," he said. "Now we can see that the negotiated arrangements with the gambling industry – where they were given all the concessions they demanded – haven't worked."
Addicted Britain: A growing epidemic
Gambling addiction has soared in the UK, fuelled by the rapid growth of online betting.
The number of hardcore addicts has doubled in the past six years to almost 500,000. The number of people in danger of becoming problem gamblers, meanwhile, has reached nearly a million.
One of the areas that has seen the biggest is online gambling.
Around nine million Britons will gamble online this year. The UK online gambling industry is expected to be worth more than £2bn in 2013. The boom was brought about in part by a relaxation of laws regulating the industry under a shake-up by Tony Blair's government in 2005.
The Gambling Act allowed bookmakers to advertise in the UK for the first time.
Charities have been critical of celebrities glamorising gambling through endorsements. The Australian cricketer Shane Warne promotes gambling to his one million Twitter followers through his @Warne888 handle – he signed a lucrative deal in 2008 with the 888 Poker group to represent the company at events around the world. Ray Winstone became the face of bet365 and regularly features at half-time during games urging people to "bet in play, now".
Football, racing and poker betting operators are estimated to be saving around £250m a year by offshoring online gambling – more than the highly publicised recent cases of tax avoidance by Starbucks and Amazon.
Although William Hill and Ladbrokes are UK Plcs with hundreds of high street branches, bets placed on their websites and phone lines are regulated and taxed in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
Other big names such as Betfair, PaddyPower and 888 – which heavily market their games in the UK – also avoid paying British tax on "remote" betting and gaming.
The offshoring, which has grown in recent years, allows operators to replace the UK gambling duty of 15 per cent on gross profits with an effective rate of duty of less than one per cent.
All of the top 10 operators in "remote gambling" now headquarter a part or all of their operations in Gibraltar, the Isle of Man or Guernsey – at a cost to the Treasury of £1bn in lost duty since 2009.
The figures dwarf the tens of millions of pounds of tax avoided by Starbucks and Amazon, which have attracted heavy criticism for minimising corporation tax through the use of sweetheart deals in Luxembourg and Switzerland. Yet the Treasury – which is imposing cuts to public services as part of the Government's austerity drive – does not intend to close the betting duty loophole for almost two years.
It is currently consulting on a new gambling duty centred on "point of consumption" – taxing where the bet was placed – rather than where it was taken ("point of supply"), with the intention of introducing the change in December 2014.
The top indigenous British bookmakers say that for years they tried to warn the Government they were being pushed offshore by the UK's "uncompetitive" tax rate in an increasingly global trade.
However, they are also aware that publicity about the amount of money being diverted from the Exchequer by their move to Gibraltar and other places could play badly with the public.
In a statement, William Hill, which saves an estimated £37m annually in betting duty, vigorously denied it was "engaged in any avoidance scheme or artificial tax structure".
Ladbrokes, which saves around £18m annually, said it had only moved offshore reluctantly "to survive and compete".
However, disclosure of the scale of the money lost to the UK Government across the entire industry is likely to provoke anger, at a time of austerity caused by a growing deficit in the public finances. Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research, said: "This indicates, yet again, the toothless approach of the UK's tax authorities to tax avoidance."
Signs that gambling taxation would fail to tackle the rise of the internet first emerged a decade ago. To counter growing foreign competition from gaming sites headquartered in Gibraltar and Malta, in 2001 Gordon Brown replaced betting duty of 6.75 per cent on stake money to a 15 per cent duty on bookmakers' gross profits.
Leading British bookies were widely reported to have entered into a "gentlemen's agreement" with the then Chancellor to move their putative offshore operations back on shore – which they did. But, undercut by rivals based in tax havens, particularly those operating casino sites, in 2009 William Hill, Ladbrokes and SkyBet moved their online and phone business offshore. In 2011, Betfair, the fast-growing betting exchange, joined the exodus by relocating to Gibraltar, telling investors it expected to save £20m in tax annually. Only two major UK gambling companies – Bet365, a family firm based in Stoke-on-Trent, and Sky – pay UK duty on sports betting, although their casino games are located, respectively, in Gibraltar and Alderney.
The Government's current plan is to force companies taking bets from Britons to obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission or risk having their websites and advertising blocked. However the Treasury, which would have to enact the change in a parliamentary Bill, does not expect to introduce the change before December next year and is still considering the results of a consultation which closed last summer.
Several gambling companies are fiercely opposed to the move, arguing that a 15 per cent rate would endanger a British success story.
Other operators back the change in an industry associated with social problems. The Coates family, which owns Bet365, wants the new tax to be introduced as quickly as possible. Ian Burke, chief executive of Blue Square-owner Rank Group, said that the current system of taxation was "indefensible". The Treasury defended its record, saying: "The Government is levelling the playing field on remote gambling taxation. This is a major reform, and the first time a UK Government is taxing remote gambling companies with no base in the UK."
Labour's shadow Treasury spokeswoman, Catherine McKinnell, said: "The offshore gambling industry is making massive profits from tax-paying UK punters and yet hundreds of millions of pounds are potentially being lost to the Exchequer at the same time as ordinary taxpayers are being hit hard by cuts and tax rises.
"It isn't just UK taxpayers who are paying the price – responsible firms who have remained in the UK and employ thousands of people are at an unfair disadvantage. The Government should be straining every sinew to clamp down on aggressive tax avoidance, and loopholes, as quickly as possible."
Mr Murphy added that the Treasury's approach of working in co-operation with business to secure tax agreements was "not working".
"We know it failed in the case of banking where Barclays ignored their deal with HMRC months after they signed it," he said. "Now we can see that the negotiated arrangements with the gambling industry – where they were given all the concessions they demanded – haven't worked."
Addicted Britain: A growing epidemic
Gambling addiction has soared in the UK, fuelled by the rapid growth of online betting.
The number of hardcore addicts has doubled in the past six years to almost 500,000. The number of people in danger of becoming problem gamblers, meanwhile, has reached nearly a million.
One of the areas that has seen the biggest is online gambling.
Around nine million Britons will gamble online this year. The UK online gambling industry is expected to be worth more than £2bn in 2013. The boom was brought about in part by a relaxation of laws regulating the industry under a shake-up by Tony Blair's government in 2005.
The Gambling Act allowed bookmakers to advertise in the UK for the first time.
Charities have been critical of celebrities glamorising gambling through endorsements. The Australian cricketer Shane Warne promotes gambling to his one million Twitter followers through his @Warne888 handle – he signed a lucrative deal in 2008 with the 888 Poker group to represent the company at events around the world. Ray Winstone became the face of bet365 and regularly features at half-time during games urging people to "bet in play, now".
Match-fixing: Champions League tie played in England 'was fixed'
A Champions League tie played in England is one of 380 matches across Europe investigators say was fixed.
European police did not reveal the identity of the match they believe was corrupt in England.
But Europol did say that they had uncovered an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was co-ordinating the operation.
Some 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals are suspected of being involved.
At a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Europol claimed:
- The fixed Champions League tie in England took place in "last three or four years";
- The identity of that match cannot be revealed due to "ongoing judicial proceedings";
- Other "corrupt" matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and "several top football matches in European leagues";
- In Germany-based matches alone, criminals wagered £13.8m (16m euros) on rigged matches and made £6.9m in profits
Officials fear this is as the "tip of the iceberg".
Rob Wainwright, director of Europol - the European Union's law enforcement agency, said: "This is the work of a suspected organised crime syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around Europe.
"It is clear to us this is the biggest-ever investigation into suspected match-fixing in Europe. It has yielded major results which we think have uncovered a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe.
"We have uncovered an extensive criminal network."
Europol, which has been investigating for 18 months, said suspected matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties and "several top football matches in European leagues".
In addition to the £13.8m wagered on Germany-based matches, payments of £1.73m are thought to have been paid to those involved. The biggest payment to an individual was £121,000, according to investigators.
Europol believes a crime syndicate based in Asia was liaising with criminal networks throughout Europe. It believes match-fixing has taken place in 15 countries and 50 people have so far been arrested.
Asked specifically about the allegations surrounding the Champions League tie held in England, Wainwright declined to identify the match because of "ongoing judicial proceedings".
However he did say it happened in the last three to four years, before adding: "The focus has been on other countries, not the United Kingdom. However we were surprised by the scale generally of the criminal enterprise and just how widespread it was.
"It would be naive and complacent of those in the UK to think such a criminal conspiracy does not involve the English game and all the football in Europe."
European police did not reveal the identity of the match they believe was corrupt in England.
But Europol did say that they had uncovered an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was co-ordinating the operation.
Some 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals are suspected of being involved.
At a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands, Europol claimed:
- The fixed Champions League tie in England took place in "last three or four years";
- The identity of that match cannot be revealed due to "ongoing judicial proceedings";
- Other "corrupt" matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and "several top football matches in European leagues";
- In Germany-based matches alone, criminals wagered £13.8m (16m euros) on rigged matches and made £6.9m in profits
Officials fear this is as the "tip of the iceberg".
Rob Wainwright, director of Europol - the European Union's law enforcement agency, said: "This is the work of a suspected organised crime syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around Europe.
"It is clear to us this is the biggest-ever investigation into suspected match-fixing in Europe. It has yielded major results which we think have uncovered a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe.
"We have uncovered an extensive criminal network."
Europol, which has been investigating for 18 months, said suspected matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties and "several top football matches in European leagues".
In addition to the £13.8m wagered on Germany-based matches, payments of £1.73m are thought to have been paid to those involved. The biggest payment to an individual was £121,000, according to investigators.
Europol believes a crime syndicate based in Asia was liaising with criminal networks throughout Europe. It believes match-fixing has taken place in 15 countries and 50 people have so far been arrested.
Asked specifically about the allegations surrounding the Champions League tie held in England, Wainwright declined to identify the match because of "ongoing judicial proceedings".
However he did say it happened in the last three to four years, before adding: "The focus has been on other countries, not the United Kingdom. However we were surprised by the scale generally of the criminal enterprise and just how widespread it was.
"It would be naive and complacent of those in the UK to think such a criminal conspiracy does not involve the English game and all the football in Europe."
January 31, 2013
CONCACAF to target match-fixing
CONCACAF has announced that it is exploring a number of measures designed to combat match-fixing and corruption in football.
The governing body for football in the Americas and the Caribbean has released a statement saying it's in the process of identifying measures on a case-by-case basis following a workshop which ended in New York Friday.
CONCACAF says it's also examining a number of preventive steps in the form of courses and training programmes as well as specific legislation.
"Match manipulation in football must be tackled in the strongest possible way and we are glad that CONCACAF is taking a proactive approach on this subject," said Serge Dumortier, senior security manager at FIFA.
"We must take all the steps necessary to safeguard the integrity of our sport."
More than 30 delegates from football, government and law enforcement in Canada and the United States attended the workshop co-hosted by CONCACAF and organised by INTERPOL and FIFA.
The two-day Integrity in Sport workshop examined a range of topics, including the betting industry, match-fixing threats, governance, education, and prevention.
"This workshop has the goal to raise awareness of the key contemporary match-fixing issues and threats in football, and to identify good practice and areas for development," said Shawn Bray, head of the US National Central Bureau in Washington.
"The goal is to bring together players, referees, coaches, sports associations, betting regulators and law enforcement to improve individuals' awareness and understanding of corruption in football."
Officials say match-fixing has become a global matter affecting every sport on the planet and that football is now a high target for unlawful business deals.
Presentations were made by INTERPOL, FIFA and Early Warning System, a company established to monitor matches and to safeguard the integrity of football.
"The football family must certainly be an intrinsic part of the battle against match-fixing through education, surveillance and sanction," said CONCACAF General Secretary Enrique Sanz.
"However, we mustn't forget to work in partnership with all other affected sports, governments, media, fans, and society as a whole."
A similar workshop for the confederation's Caribbean members will take place in Panama at their Congress in April.
The governing body for football in the Americas and the Caribbean has released a statement saying it's in the process of identifying measures on a case-by-case basis following a workshop which ended in New York Friday.
CONCACAF says it's also examining a number of preventive steps in the form of courses and training programmes as well as specific legislation.
"Match manipulation in football must be tackled in the strongest possible way and we are glad that CONCACAF is taking a proactive approach on this subject," said Serge Dumortier, senior security manager at FIFA.
"We must take all the steps necessary to safeguard the integrity of our sport."
More than 30 delegates from football, government and law enforcement in Canada and the United States attended the workshop co-hosted by CONCACAF and organised by INTERPOL and FIFA.
The two-day Integrity in Sport workshop examined a range of topics, including the betting industry, match-fixing threats, governance, education, and prevention.
"This workshop has the goal to raise awareness of the key contemporary match-fixing issues and threats in football, and to identify good practice and areas for development," said Shawn Bray, head of the US National Central Bureau in Washington.
"The goal is to bring together players, referees, coaches, sports associations, betting regulators and law enforcement to improve individuals' awareness and understanding of corruption in football."
Officials say match-fixing has become a global matter affecting every sport on the planet and that football is now a high target for unlawful business deals.
Presentations were made by INTERPOL, FIFA and Early Warning System, a company established to monitor matches and to safeguard the integrity of football.
"The football family must certainly be an intrinsic part of the battle against match-fixing through education, surveillance and sanction," said CONCACAF General Secretary Enrique Sanz.
"However, we mustn't forget to work in partnership with all other affected sports, governments, media, fans, and society as a whole."
A similar workshop for the confederation's Caribbean members will take place in Panama at their Congress in April.
January 28, 2013
KGC investigated BetUS ties with organized crime
Court papers related to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into BetWSC (World Sport Centre) and revelations from a later KGC inquiry into Kahnawake-licensed bookmakers exposed possible links between BetUS and the Canadian mafia.
In November 2012, the RCMP charged over 20 people for their roles in an illegal sports betting ring with alleged mafia ties. Two of the people charged at the end of 2012 had been arrested before when the investigation dubbed Project Colisee culminated with the arrest of 91 mafia associates, including Canada's reputed godfather Nicolo Rizzuto.
The Rizzuto crime family and the Montreal mafia bankrolled a sports betting operation present locally in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto and online with internet bookmaker World Sport Centre.
According to the RCMP, World Sport Centre operated betwsc.com, an online bookmaker that between October 2004 and March 2006 generated $26 million in profits from 820,000 online bets processed and almost half a billion dollars in revenues.
BetWSC.com operated from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory with a license from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.
When the Gaming Commission chairman learned that BetWSC.com was linked to the Montreal mafia, the KGC launched its own investigation that ended with the suspension of BetWSC.com's license and the online bookmaker web site being taken down by hosting provider Mohawk Internet Technologies.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission extended its investigation to all Kahnawake bookmakers, a circumstance that eventually led to the suspension of BetUS license.
At the time, Sportsbook Review stated that BetUS decided to relocate after Kahnawake changed its telephone betting policies, while another version indicated that BetUS had its license terminated over irregularities.
At the end of 2006, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, worried by the possibility the United States could try to assert jurisdiction and apply their internet gambling laws and the UIGEA payment ban to Kahnawake-licensed operators, decided to amend its telephone betting rules prohibiting placing bets or even discussing betting odds on the phone.
Bookmakers Review spoke to a person that at the time was working for a service provider in the Mohawk Territory and that clearly recalls the KGC decision to suspend the license of BetUS parent company LT Baroda had nothing to do with the newly passed UIGEA, but was rather motivated by the concern the KGC had that criminal organizations could have infiltrated the online betting industry in Kahnawake.
BetUS, which like BetWSC also had a presence in Belize, ended up laying off a staff of around 100 in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and set up office in Costa Rica, where it remains today.
An article on a French language regional newspaper dated December 2006 confirms that about 100 workers had been laid off on the heels of the concerns created by the criminal charges against the principal of World Sport Centre alleging links with organized crime in Montreal.
In November 2012, the RCMP charged over 20 people for their roles in an illegal sports betting ring with alleged mafia ties. Two of the people charged at the end of 2012 had been arrested before when the investigation dubbed Project Colisee culminated with the arrest of 91 mafia associates, including Canada's reputed godfather Nicolo Rizzuto.
The Rizzuto crime family and the Montreal mafia bankrolled a sports betting operation present locally in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto and online with internet bookmaker World Sport Centre.
According to the RCMP, World Sport Centre operated betwsc.com, an online bookmaker that between October 2004 and March 2006 generated $26 million in profits from 820,000 online bets processed and almost half a billion dollars in revenues.
BetWSC.com operated from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory with a license from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.
When the Gaming Commission chairman learned that BetWSC.com was linked to the Montreal mafia, the KGC launched its own investigation that ended with the suspension of BetWSC.com's license and the online bookmaker web site being taken down by hosting provider Mohawk Internet Technologies.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission extended its investigation to all Kahnawake bookmakers, a circumstance that eventually led to the suspension of BetUS license.
At the time, Sportsbook Review stated that BetUS decided to relocate after Kahnawake changed its telephone betting policies, while another version indicated that BetUS had its license terminated over irregularities.
At the end of 2006, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, worried by the possibility the United States could try to assert jurisdiction and apply their internet gambling laws and the UIGEA payment ban to Kahnawake-licensed operators, decided to amend its telephone betting rules prohibiting placing bets or even discussing betting odds on the phone.
Bookmakers Review spoke to a person that at the time was working for a service provider in the Mohawk Territory and that clearly recalls the KGC decision to suspend the license of BetUS parent company LT Baroda had nothing to do with the newly passed UIGEA, but was rather motivated by the concern the KGC had that criminal organizations could have infiltrated the online betting industry in Kahnawake.
BetUS, which like BetWSC also had a presence in Belize, ended up laying off a staff of around 100 in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and set up office in Costa Rica, where it remains today.
An article on a French language regional newspaper dated December 2006 confirms that about 100 workers had been laid off on the heels of the concerns created by the criminal charges against the principal of World Sport Centre alleging links with organized crime in Montreal.
Norskespill launches on EveryMatrix open games platform
Malta-licensed gaming operator Norskespill.com has gone live with its Norwegian-facing operations utilising EveryMatrix’s GamMatrix open gaming management platform.
The GamMatrix platform, including the newly introduced Casino Engine, is a vendor-neutral gaming management and payment processing platform which allows EveryMatrix customers to integrate any kind of gaming software into one single wallet system.
Through the platform, Norskespill.com offers its players a range of third-party casino games from the likes of Net Entertainment, BetsoftGaming, IGT, Microgaming and Play’n GO.
“EveryMatrix has demonstrated a very high standard both in terms products and services in addition to delivery and flexibility,” said Norskespill.com CEO Niclas Lundquist. “The EveryMatrix product suite makes us capable of meeting our objective of being the market leading online gaming provider in Norway by continuously satisfying player expectations through quality solutions.”
Norskespill.com already has EveryMatrix’s OddsMatrix sportsbook integrated onto its online platform, as well as the company’s Mobile360 solution which incorporates sports betting and casino games into a single mobile web application.
“Norskespill has been a very interesting acquaintance for us,” said EveryMatrix CEO Ebbe Goes. “Their knowledge of mobile solutions is very deep and they have definitely helped refine the EveryMatrix mobile offering, making interaction faster and more streamlined. Growing through our partners is a core strategy for us and Norskespill is a great example of this.”
The GamMatrix platform, including the newly introduced Casino Engine, is a vendor-neutral gaming management and payment processing platform which allows EveryMatrix customers to integrate any kind of gaming software into one single wallet system.
Through the platform, Norskespill.com offers its players a range of third-party casino games from the likes of Net Entertainment, BetsoftGaming, IGT, Microgaming and Play’n GO.
“EveryMatrix has demonstrated a very high standard both in terms products and services in addition to delivery and flexibility,” said Norskespill.com CEO Niclas Lundquist. “The EveryMatrix product suite makes us capable of meeting our objective of being the market leading online gaming provider in Norway by continuously satisfying player expectations through quality solutions.”
Norskespill.com already has EveryMatrix’s OddsMatrix sportsbook integrated onto its online platform, as well as the company’s Mobile360 solution which incorporates sports betting and casino games into a single mobile web application.
“Norskespill has been a very interesting acquaintance for us,” said EveryMatrix CEO Ebbe Goes. “Their knowledge of mobile solutions is very deep and they have definitely helped refine the EveryMatrix mobile offering, making interaction faster and more streamlined. Growing through our partners is a core strategy for us and Norskespill is a great example of this.”
January 25, 2013
Gamesys launch Playboy game theme on Facebook
Gamesys has recently launched Playboy Casino on Facebook. The game sees players play their way through a series of slot machines winning prizes along the way.
It starts with a 1950s style slot in order to win money and experience points, players can also win money by inviting friends to play.
Experience points are then used to progress to the next level and unlock additional machines. Each machine is based around a different era from Playboy’s history and all the slot machines feature multiple pay lines, wild symbols and bonus games.
As a player completes more levels they can collect a series of badges and trophies, the aim being to collect them all. However, while the machines are very different in aesthetics, they are essentially the same with no great surprises along the way.
The game also features a real-time chat facility which allows players to talk to each other when playing.
It remains to be seen how popular the game will become, but already there are over 50,000 monthly active users and it is currently featured in the New Games section of Facebook’s App Center.
It starts with a 1950s style slot in order to win money and experience points, players can also win money by inviting friends to play.
Experience points are then used to progress to the next level and unlock additional machines. Each machine is based around a different era from Playboy’s history and all the slot machines feature multiple pay lines, wild symbols and bonus games.
As a player completes more levels they can collect a series of badges and trophies, the aim being to collect them all. However, while the machines are very different in aesthetics, they are essentially the same with no great surprises along the way.
The game also features a real-time chat facility which allows players to talk to each other when playing.
It remains to be seen how popular the game will become, but already there are over 50,000 monthly active users and it is currently featured in the New Games section of Facebook’s App Center.
Venetian Macau suing two Chinese gamblers
Sheldon Adelson’s Venetian Macau took legal action in a Hong Kong court this week to recover approximately $4.5m (£2.8m), against two of its former high roller customers from China.
In one lawsuit, filed on Wednesday with Hong Kong’s high court, the Venetian is trying to recover $3m from Zou Yunyu, who once featured on lists of China’s richest people and has an estimated $220m fortune from her company, the Shanghai Gaoyuan Property Group.
In the second case, the Venetian is pursuing $1.5m from Xie Xiaoqing, a businessman and deputy to the provincial legislature in Hubei province, according to Hong Kong media.
The Venetian is one of four casinos owned by the Chinese arm of Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. Adelson’s fortune is valued at over $20bn and his interests span gaming empires in Nevada and Asia, the Israeli newspaper market and Republican politics in the US. In the 2012 elections, he and his wife, Miriam, donated $95m to Republican candidates, including a massive late surge of $33m to pro-Romney political committees.
Macau’s rise to the top of the casino market has been powered by wealthy mainland Chinese gamblers, but the lawsuits highlight the difficulties in collecting debts if they return to the mainland, where gambling is illegal and debts aren’t recognised by courts. Both Macau and nearby Hong Kong have separate legal systems from mainland China.
In one lawsuit, filed on Wednesday with Hong Kong’s high court, the Venetian is trying to recover $3m from Zou Yunyu, who once featured on lists of China’s richest people and has an estimated $220m fortune from her company, the Shanghai Gaoyuan Property Group.
In the second case, the Venetian is pursuing $1.5m from Xie Xiaoqing, a businessman and deputy to the provincial legislature in Hubei province, according to Hong Kong media.
The Venetian is one of four casinos owned by the Chinese arm of Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp. Adelson’s fortune is valued at over $20bn and his interests span gaming empires in Nevada and Asia, the Israeli newspaper market and Republican politics in the US. In the 2012 elections, he and his wife, Miriam, donated $95m to Republican candidates, including a massive late surge of $33m to pro-Romney political committees.
Macau’s rise to the top of the casino market has been powered by wealthy mainland Chinese gamblers, but the lawsuits highlight the difficulties in collecting debts if they return to the mainland, where gambling is illegal and debts aren’t recognised by courts. Both Macau and nearby Hong Kong have separate legal systems from mainland China.
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