LONDON (AP) ― The IOC wants governments to do more to tackle illegal betting, match-fixing and other corrupt activities that authorities say could pose a bigger threat to sports and the Olympics than doping.
The International Olympic Committee will host a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday of sports leaders, government ministers, licensed betting operators, lottery companies and the international police agency Interpol.
The meeting, which comes less than six months before the London Olympics, will act on a series of recommendations for cracking down on the multibillion-dollar illegal sports gambling industry.
“We absolutely need governments to wake up to the magnitude of the problem,” IOC director general Christophe De Kepper told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “This is affecting not only the credibility of sports, but it’s a criminal activity that moves very quickly around the world.”
Interpol has estimated that illegal betting is worth $140 billion a year and involves organized crime gangs and money laundering.
“There needs to be an understanding from the public authorities of the threat of criminal networks and the powerful financial transactions involved,” De Kepper said in a telephone interview from Lausanne. “The threat in our opinion is at least as serious as doping for the credibility of sport, and probably even worse if you look at the sums involved.”
Football and cricket, among other sports, have been rocked by fixing scandals driven by betting scams.
