At some level, it seems like an oxymoron that making sports betting legal as a whole could reduce corruption.

1. Sports Betting Corruption
2. Sports Gambling Corruption Articles
3. Sports Gambling Corruption Meaning
4. Sports Gambling Corruption Definition
5. Sports Gambling Corruption Against

A third member of Cincinnati’s City Council has been charged with taking bribes this year. Sittenfeld took $40,000 from undercover FBI agents to help on future projects, like a sports betting establishment. The Councilman could see up to 20 years in prison if found guilty, although he’s p. Match-fixing corruption in sport related to gambling is a fundamental, worldwide threat to the future of professional sport. While the issue of match-fixing is acknowledged throughout the sports movement and new education programmes and other measures have sprung up, there is still much work to be done. Gambling versus non-gambling corruption Match-fixing comes in two prominent conceptualizations. Gambling-related match fixing occurs where an individual or group seeks to manipulate a result in order to win a wager themselves or to assist others to win a wager. Illegal sports betting has real consequences for people who place and receive wagers—and for the safety of the American public. Organized crime groups often run illegal gambling operations.

In fact, one of the reasons sports betting is illegal in some parts of the United States is because sporting events have been unduly influenced by bettors and bookies trying to make a buck.

Sure, there are some very good arguments about how making sports betting outright illegal can prevent corruption from occurring within a sport. On the other hand, making sports betting legal as a whole could generate millions in tax revenue and some areas have achieved success with regulated betting.

Let’s look at five different ways in which regulated sports betting could potentially reduce bad actors from ruining the integrity of sports.

1 – More Eyes on the Transactions

At some level, it’s a little unfair to say that sports betting causes corruption when so much betting is done in underground black markets. In most places where it’s illegal to place a bet, the only way to make a wager is by contacting a criminal. That criminal can run their business however they see fit.

That all changes if sports betting becomes regulated everywhere. Suddenly, those running the show aren’t criminals doing their own thing anymore. There will be systems set up with multiple people taking an interest and overseeing how the betting goes down.

The temptation to fix a game or two will never go away in those who have the means to do it; however, because multiple agencies will have access to place bets, it will be far more difficult to affect betting outcomes without anyone noticing. More people will be involved to evaluate each game more closely. This can really only happen if sports gambling becomes legalized and regulated everywhere.

2 – More Regulation

The reason to decriminalize or legalize any activity is to tax it and regulate it. Taxing it is a good thing for the reason mentioned above: More people will take an interest in monitoring the games to prevent tampering.

Regulation is a good thing, too, even if you don’t like big government.

While the proper amount of regulation will have to be found and the proper place for those regulations needs to be determined (state agencies, federal agencies, international agencies, etc.), adding additional regulations for who can place bets should reduce corruption.

At the very least, it will prevent bookies from taking bets from those who have histories of gambling addiction, minors, money launderers, etc. If someone is responsible for verifying the identity of the bettor and where the money comes from, it presents additional roadblocks for cheating.

That’s not to say there will never be cheating or that regulations don’t present a framework that can, over time, be defeated. Still, a dedicated team of people who exist to look for and stop illegal betting will be more effective at stopping corruption than even the current crime agencies who are dedicated to stopping multiple different types of crime simultaneously.

Put more simply, the FBI, CIA, and local law enforcement do bust illegal gamblers, but that’s not the entire focus.

An agency that did nothing but monitor gambling is going to have a better chance of stopping corruption.

This is especially true since a lot of match-fixing takes place in lower level leagues that don’t earn the attention of FIFA or crime agencies. If a properly funded and motivated agency were in place, these match fixers could be identified sooner and finish their job.

Also, increased regulations can indeed happen without legalizing betting. However, funding regulatory agencies is always an issue. New regulatory bodies could be funded directly from taxes on earned sports bet winnings.

3 – More Bets Means More Chances to Make Money

Call this the supply and demand argument, but there’s something to be said for the fact that if there were more bets placed on more games, profiting from each game becomes less important. This removes some of the financial incentives for doing something to affect a game because each individual game is less important.

Again, this is not a foolproof system.

Sports Betting Corruption

If a serious match fixer can fix a match, they’re going to try.

That’s why we need more eyes on the ball and more active regulation as a whole.

Still, for the less crime-prone bookies out there, being able to take more action on more games is a pretty good deterrent from trying to do something illegal. Good bookies can make their money on the aggregate (many games over time) rather than needing a surprise outcome on one game.

Again, this becomes even truer if the chances of getting caught (and the penalties for doing so) increase. Both of these things can happen if we increase regulations.

4 – More Cooperation With Leagues

Leagues like the National Football League fully understand that there are millions of dollars hanging out there just waiting to be earned by betting. That’s why the NFL was more than happy to support sites like DraftKings and have lobbied for other sports betting sites in the past.

If sports betting became legal, which would destigmatize it and allow leagues to keep a clean image, leagues would jump all over the chance to allow betting. They would see it as a way to generate renewed interest in their product and a way to earn some money on the side.

They would also see that to make the money and keep in the good graces of the regulators, they would have to keep their games clean. Even the appearance that a league knew (or participated) in match-fixing would be enough to torpedo the league commissioner’s career and potentially destroy the fandom.

In other words, if a league knew about corruption and didn’t fix it, it could very well tarnish the league’s reputation.

Therefore, it would make sense that the leagues would be hypervigilant in policing themselves for corruption. One could even imagine many leagues creating their own regulatory offices just to make sure everything stayed on the up-and-up.

5 – Fewer Questionable Bookies

Let’s call this the marijuana parallel. The minute it became legal to sell weed recreationally in places like Colorado, people you never thought would touch the stuff started making money off of it.

The same would happen virtually overnight with sports betting. Every online casino, every sports league, DraftKings, etc. would suddenly have a place you could go online to place your bets and, hopefully, watch the dollars roll in.

It’s hard to believe that, right now, several companies are not preparing for the day when sports betting is legal.

Once these reputable, licensed “bookies” start operating out in the open, the criminal element fades away.

They will never be gone for good and many of today’s criminals would become tomorrow’s “honest” bookies. But the larger number of good choices for betting would reduce the chances of bettors getting ripped off.

Unless some strange addendum was passed to existing legislation that only existing bookies could take bets, a lot of well-known businesspeople would start their own sportsbooks or betting shops. These businesspeople are much more likely to follow the law, cooperate with regulators, and take bets properly so that everyone is safer.

Sports Gambling Corruption Articles

Conclusion

It would be easy to say that the best way to avoid all corruption in sports betting would be to disallow it totally. That might reduce the amount of corruption, but as long as someone is taking action on a game in some black market sportsbook, someone else is trying to fix that game.

That’s why the better option may be to make sports betting legal, taxed, and regulated. The conservative figures for how much sports betting would raise in taxes is enough to arm a full army of regulators and still ensure that everyone with an interest in betting is making their money.

Sports Gambling Corruption Meaning

More importantly, the more legal sports betting is, the more transparent the industry becomes as a whole.

Sports Gambling Corruption Definition

The more transparent the industry, the less likely it is that indiscretion is going to slip through the cracks. Also, as sports betting becomes legal, the sports leagues themselves can take dollars from the betting and figure out their own regulatory agencies. They can work to protect the integrity of their sports.

Finally, making sports betting legal can remove bad actors who are running unchecked or given the gray status of sports betting in many parts of the United States. Ultimately, it’s not a foolproof plan. However, it hasn’t been tried, and the current system is clearly open enough to allow some bad people to do bad things.

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Perhaps, it might be time to try a new system.