Pete Iorizzo: Fantasy games pave way for sports betting

By Pete Iorizzo

Updated 7:34 pm, Saturday, August 6, 2016

If daily fantasy sports isn't gambling, then I'm going to be the starting quarterback for the New York Jets this season.

The bill signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday makes it legal to win or lose money — or ... you know ... gamble — based on the performance of your imaginary team of real players.

Lawmakers essentially ran an end-around play to elude another state law that makes games of "chance" illegal, instead defining daily fantasy sports as games of "skill."

Please. If you've had your fantasy football season waylaid by a balky hamstring, then you know that even the geekiest stat-heads can't succeed without some good fortune.

To be clear, though, this isn't to argue that daily fantasy sports should be illegal.

Sure, I can think of better things to do with your paycheck than letting it ride on the Arizona Cardinals' kicker and Cleveland Browns' running back. But who am I — and who is the state of New York — to tell you how to spend your money? Some of us collect stamps, some of us have FanDuel accounts. To each his own.

But defining lottery games, daily fantasy sports and horse racing as legal forms of entertainment while prohibiting bets on the Cowboys-Steelers game as a threat to civil society is so blatantly hypocritical that it's not sustainable.

It won't happen overnight, but the real takeaway from the state's thumbs-up to daily fantasy sports should be that we've taken a step closer to fully legalized sports wagering.

The major hurdle remains a 1992 federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which bans most forms of sports wagering in all but four states.

That law already has been challenged by New Jersey, where in 2012 Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill legalizing sports betting in the state. That's not to say there is now fully legalized sports betting in New Jersey. The state has lost suits from the four major sports leagues that have argued New Jersey is in violation of the 1992 federal law, though the appeals process continues.

But this is a case in which the court of public opinion could factor significantly. With public pressure and lobbying from the major sports leagues, Congress could change the 1992 law, an outcome that isn't all that far-fetched, several legal experts tell me.

Expanding the right to bet on sports seems to be one of the few issues on which most Americans agree. An estimated 57.4 million people play daily fantasy sports in the United States and Canada, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. And each year an estimated $400 billion is wagered illegally.

Guess what: People like to bet on sports.

And though the major sports leagues vehemently have resisted New Jersey's push to have the federal law struck down, their opposition is much more nuanced than it might appear.

Many professional sports teams now are invested in daily fantasy companies, a sign they're not queasy about getting cozy with wagering. NBA commissioner Adam Silver even wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in 2014 calling for more widespread legalization. The NHL is putting a team in Las Vegas, and the NFL is talking about doing the same.

Their real opposition to New Jersey's push is that it would legalize sports betting without establishing a federal framework for regulation. Probably, the leagues have their self-interests in mind, too. If we're going to have fully legalized sports gambling, the owners will want a cut.

"It seems there is a lot of hypocrisy in the sports leagues' sustained opposition," says Marc Edelman, a professor of law at Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business. He'll appear Wednesday at the Saratoga Institute on Equine, Racing and Gaming Law Conference's panel discussion on sports wagering.

"They seem opposed to traditional sports gambling when they're not in a position to profit directly from the activity, but they're more willing to accept it if they are. ... It seems reasonably likely to believe that at least the four traditional sports leagues would support the repeal of PASPA if sports gambling would lead to direct profit to their owners."

How might that happen? Owners could become shareholders in sports wagering organizations, just as they have made chunky investments in daily fantasy companies.

In New York, repealing PASPA would make it possible for the new casino being built in Schenectady to include a sports book. In fact, it seems inevitable that someday you'll be able to drive down Erie Boulevard to bet the Giants and the over.

The effort to continue banning sports betting seems awfully futile when you consider that so many of us already do.

http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-sports/article/Pete-Iorizzo-Fantasy-games-pave-way-for-sports-9127023.php

SPORT, CORRUPTION AND THE CRIMINAL LAW: THE NEED FOR AN EXPERT INVESTIGATIVE BODY

Published 28 June 2016 | Authored by: Tim Owen QC

On October 2nd 1919, the opening day of Game One in the World Series, the Philadelphia Bulletin published a poem whose central theme would soon seem slightly wide of the mark:

Still it really doesn’t matter
After all, who wins the flag.
Good clean sport is what we’re after,
And we aim to make our brag
To each near or distant nation
Whereon shines the sporting sun
That of all our games gymnastic
Baseball is the cleanest one!

A year later, eight members of the Chicago White Sox (including star hitter “Shoeless” Joe Jackson) and five gamblers were indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to defraud.1The allegation was that an organised criminal gang, headed by Arnold “The Brain” Rothstein, had paid members of the White Sox deliberately to lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. The Sox had been the hot favourites and the bizarre circumstances of their defeat (pitcher Claude “Lefty” Williams lost three games all on his own, a Series record, and many others made numerous fielding errors) strongly suggested that simple stage fright was not the explanation.

After a trial in 1921, all eight White Sox players and the gamblers were acquitted. But the very next day newly appointed National Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, announced his decision to ban the White Sox eight for life from Major League baseball on the basis that, while they may have been acquitted in court, no one could dispute they had broken the rules of baseball. This high profile criminal prosecution of some of baseball’s most famous players followed by firm action by the sport’s regulator succeeded in all but eliminating the problem of illegal gambling in baseball for decades. The moral of the story is clear. Resort to the criminal law when evidence of corruption in sport emerges can be the most effective deterrent in the regulatory toolbox.

More recently the US Department of Justice demonstrated its determination to tackle the stench of corruption that has long emanated from FIFA. Since marching into the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich early one May morning last year and arresting a string of FIFA officials on corruption charges, a long list of current and former football executives have been indicted on some 92 charges alleging racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies.

Last December former Concacaf President Jeffrey Webb pleaded guilty to money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering and agreed to forfeit $6.7m. Of the 92 counts, allegations include embezzlement of funds by Webb and Jack Warner provided by FIFA for disaster relief as well as embezzlement of funds from FIFA’s Goal programme intended for developing youth academies and infrastructure in the poorest regions. A more recent 236 page indictment2 alleges that some 27 defendants engaged in various schemes involved in selling lucrative media and marketing rights to football tournaments and matches. US attorney general Loretta Lynch said in the wake of the May 2015 raid that:

"[T]he betrayal of trust set forth here is outrageous. The scale of corruption alleged herein is unconscionable. And the message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation. You will not wait us out; you will not escape our focus."2

It can reasonably be assumed that the FBI’s bold and decisive action, in the wake of a three year investigation, will have a major deterrent effect on those who achieve high office in the world of football regardless of the outcome in the forthcoming criminal trial process. It can equally be assumed that anyone intending to engage in illegal gambling or other forms of corrupt behavior in relation to sporting events in the UK or elsewhere has little to fear from the criminal law of England and Wales in light of the striking failure of the police and prosecuting authorities to bring cases of corrupt betting and match fixing before the courts.

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http://www.lawinsport.com/sports/item/sport-corruption-and-the-criminal-law-the-need-for-an-expert-investigative-body?category_id=152

'

Cradle to Grave Gambling

Richard Hinds: Sport in Australia now so linked with gambling, match-fixing not surprising

June 3, 2016 3:16am

Richard HindsThe Daily Telegraph

YOU enter stadiums replete with gambling logos.

You are blinded by flashing bookies logos every time you open an app. You are urged to concoct a multi before you have turned the front page.

It seems a long time ago when the annual trip to the TAB to place a $1 each-way bet on the Melbourne Cup was considered, by most families, a mischievous adventure.

Back before sports gambling was legalised in the 1980s and Australia began its rapid ascent on a notorious league ladder. Before we became the biggest gambling nation in the world per-capita with $23.6 billion wagered in 2014.

Of course gambling was common before then, even endemic. But, outside the pokie palaces, the effort taken to gamble underscored the risk. The sticky carpet and seedy characters in the local TAB were far removed from the faux glitz of the casino. The ease of placing a bet by hitting a laptop key was unthinkable.

Now? We are submerged by a cradle-to-grave gambling culture in which children’s games are cynically calibrated to stimulate risk-reward impulses and create gamblers-for-life.

Yet betting’s acceptable new faces assure us the consequences are no more serious than when you placed that $1 Melbourne Cup bet – just “gamble responsibly’’!

Our national gambling addiction does not fully explain the allegations of match-fixing levelled against up to six unnamed Manly players. Match-fixing was a problem for sport almost from the moment they invented the scoreboard.

The notorious Chicago Black Sox scandal that penetrated the 1919 World Series remains the most notorious example of match-fixing. It took place at a time when gambling was a dark sub-culture. Not the deeply embedded national hobby it has become in Australia.

But as the gambling deepens so too does the ocean of gambling money. As cashed-up, often bored and even depressed players gamble to while away the non-training hours, their vulnerability becomes greater. As the shysters and criminals find their way into the sheds, the relationship between match-fixer and match day is created.

The proliferation of sports gambling has strengthened the links in this chain. With sports now clearly branded as part of the gambling industry it stands to reason athletes will consider gambling the way they might consider PlayStation games.

Anyone remotely close to top-flight sport has heard the stories. The AFL player who left town because of death threats from a bookie. The NRL player who abandoned his long-time club for a more lucrative deal to pay gambling debts. The desperate addicts caught fleecing the wallets of teammates in the sheds.

These are every-day gambling tales. Match-fixing is at another level. The Manly allegations beg the question why players earning hundreds of thousands of dollars would risk their livelihoods for $50,000 — still a relatively miniscule sum given the life-time earning capacity of an NRL player.

The Manly case remains subject to investigation. But, in a general sense, anyone with an addiction or who has been entangled in the tentacles of organised criminals will have a quick answer.

The sting that uncovered match-fixing at a suburban Melbourne soccer club arranged by off-shore bookies and the allegation of widespread spot-fixing that arose during the Australian Open tennis are merely a couple of recent examples of how greed, addiction and organised crime combine. And why only the naïve are still astonished by the idea match-fixing could happen on such a public stage as the NRL.

Australian sport has conveniently created a chicken and egg situation in which it justifies its lucrative gambling deals — $60 million for the NRL from Sportsbet — with the necessity to gain access to bookmaker’s information.

Sport flatters itself that it is the one participant in the gambling industry that can’t lose. Not until an administrator is sitting in front of a media conference addressing match-fixing allegations and trying to stuff the betting genie back into a very empty bottle.

Originally published as Submerged in cradle-to-grave gambling culture

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/richard-hinds-sport-in-australia-now-so-linked-with-gambling-matchfixing-not-surprising/news-story/fc965eded265a81d2faa6ee4d3a3b6ef

Match-fixing in tennis: Australian Open players implicated in report of suspected widespread corruption

Match-fixing in tennis: Australian Open players implicated in report of suspected widespread corruption

THE head of tennis’ anti-corruption watchdog has refused to rule out the possibility as many as eight allegedly crooked players are contesting the Australian Open.

Nigel Willerton, head of the Tennis Integrity Unit, was asked to confirm or deny that “there are players on the tour and maybe in this tournament that are being monitored by your unit for possible match fixing offences.”

Willerton replied: “It would be inappropriate for me to make comment as to whether any players are under investigation at the present time.”

Three of the most senior officials in international tennis — the ATP Tour’s Chris Kermode and Mark Young and Willert — were forced to address claims of entrenched corruption in the sport.

According to a joint report by the BBC and Buzzfeed News, eight players repeatedly flagged to the TIU over suspicions of match-fixing are in Melbourne for the Australian Open.

Pointing to 18 successful prosecutions of players who have engaged in illegal practices such as match fixing, Kermode admitted he was frustrated by reports authorities had not done enough to stamp out corruption.

“The Tennis Integrity Unit and the tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed for any reason or isn’t being thoroughly investigated,” he said.

“Let me just say that all of us here in tennis are absolutely committed to stamp out any form of corrupt conduct in our sport.

“There is a zero-tolerance policy on this. We are not complacent. We are very vigilant on this. We are not complacent.

“Whilst we are aware that all sport — all sport, not just tennis — is at potential risk of corruption, that is why, in 2008 the Tennis Integrity Unit was set up to actually tackle this issue head on.

“We are constantly vigilant and not complacent.

“In its investigations, the Tennis Integrity Unit has to find evidence as opposed to information, suspicion, or hearsay.

“This is the key here, that it requires evidence.”

The opening day of the year’s first grand slam has been overshadowed by revelations that 16 top-50 players over the last decade have been reported to the TIU, set up to police the sport and claiming a zero-tolerance policy towards betting related corruption, over suspicions they had thrown matches.

Repeated alerts were sent to the TIU in relation to a number of players, some of whom BBC reports are winners of grand slam titles, but all continued to play and were not disciplined.

In a radio program aired overnight, the BBC said it had “seen confidential documents which reveal how some (players) were linked to gambling syndicates in Russia and Italy which won hundreds of thousands of pounds betting on matches they played in.

Fans arrived at Melbourne Park unaware of the dramatic revelations.Source: News Corp Australia

“A number of those who have been repeatedly flagged on fixing lists passed to the game’s Tennis Integrity Unit have continued to attract highly suspicious gambling activity.”

Buzzfeed said that players were targeted in hotel rooms at major tournaments and offered $50,000 or more per fix by corrupt gamblers.

But tennis authorities said that there is no complacency when it comes to fighting corruption.

“I can assure you that tennis is not treating this lightly,” ATP chief Chris Kermode told Buzzfeed.

“The idea that tennis is not acting appropriately is ludicrous.”

One of the sport’s most ­infamous gambling controversies involved leading Russian player Nikolay Davydenko.

The former world No. 3 was cleared in 2008 of any wrongdoing after the year-long probe into suspicious betting patterns on a match he lost to a lowly-ranked opponent in ­Poland.

The ATP, the governing body of men’s tennis, said it found “no evidence” of wrongdoing by Davydenko, who was beaten by Argentinian Martin Vassallo Arguello in Sopot.

Betting on the match, which ended when Davydenko retir­ed with a foot injury, were so extreme that online bookmakers voided all wagers.

The match attracted more than 10 times the usual amount for a match of that level, with most on Arguello after he had lost the first set.

Players and coaches are ­forbidden from gambling on tennis.

Tomic shocked by backlash

1:25

It was in the wake of that investigation that the ITU was established.

A fresh anti-corruption code was implemented in 2009 but, after taking legal advice, the game’s authorities were told previous corruption offences couldn’t be pursued and “as a result no new investigations into any of the players who were mentioned in the 2008 report were opened”, a TIU spokesman said.

The BBC and Buzzfeed were given access to the evidence by whistleblowers who have asked to remain anonymous.

“There was a core of about 10 players that we believed were the most common perpetrators that were at the root of the problem,” Mark Phillips, who was one of the betting investigators in the 2007 inquiry, told the BBC.

“The evidence was really strong, there appeared to be a really good chance to nip it in the bud and get a strong deterrent out there to root out the main bad apples.”

The reports also claim that the European Sports Security Association, which monitors betting for bookmakers, flagged up more than 50 suspicious matches to the TIU last year.

Willerton said while it welcomed the support of the betting industry “it is not the role of betting companies to make judgments about corrupt activity”.

“All credible information received by the TIU is analysed, assessed, and investigated by highly experienced former law-enforcement investigators.”

The BBC and Buzzfeed News did not name the players they claimed were the subject of the investigations.

VIDEO ON LINK: 

http://www.foxsports.com.au/tennis/matchfixing-in-tennis-australian-open-players-implicated-in-report-of-suspected-widespread-corruption/news-story/34694d2b33687d1b71e728c43829ffd3

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