Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

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Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport - A substantial diaspora in the host country that offered them a twofold advantage: a source of labour that arrived to swell their ranks, and income, particularly through the racket , often practised to the detriment of members of the wider community. - A strategy copied from that of commerce, in terms of winning the market. In this way they passed from crime SMEs to multinational status. In the USA, as in certain islands in the Caribbean (Cuba) and in Latin America, these criminal organisations expanded further into and through narcotics, gambling (casinos: from Las Vegas to Miami and Havana), pornography, prostitution and gunrunning. In addition, by anticipating the fall of the Wall, they took advantage of their geographic and cultural links and areas of common interest with other entities, albeit competitors, some of which were even established in Eastern Europe. It is thus, for example, that prior to the fall of the Wall the Italian Mafias built up an entente cordiale with their Turkish counterparts (Maffya), and their Albanian counterparts, the latter benefiting from a strategic geographic positioning on the narcotics route to Europe from Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle (Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand). Criminal joint ventures were born. The official ideology and party line in Eastern Europe denied the existence of a micro society during the Communist period, but one nevertheless emerged for subsistance purposes (petty smuggling, rackets, corruption) and developed within and despite the existence of the authoritarian regimes. The parallel market established by these micro societies was useful to the local populations and in a certain way, enabled these states to survive economically and socially, thanks to the underground micro-economy . This social and economic utility can explain why criminal organisations had the time to deeply penetrate the social fabric, and were accepted on a long-term basis by the local populations. When the Berlin Wall fell, they were so rooted and integrated into the societies that they were naturally absorbed into the new State systems. In Asia, the proclamation of Communist China in 1949 put a brake on Chinese crime. The establishment of a strong centralised regime and a planned economy forced criminal organisations to leave continental China and not only move to its zones of influence (Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Singapore) but also to spread into the rest of the world by way of a substantial Chinese diaspora. The Chinese Mafia waited until the 1980s/1990s to re-establish themselves permanently on the continent when the Communist regime loosened up on economic aspects. The handover by Portugal and the United Kingdom of the colonies of Macao and Hong Kong (respectively) put the final finishing touches to the Chinese Mafia s return to the very heart of China itself. The effect of the fall of the Wall was the internationalisation and globalisation of organised crime. Criminal organisations immediately took advantage of the tremendous opportunities offered by the liberalisation of commerce, the opening up of borders, globalisation and its associated controls (legal, judicial), the free movement of people and assets, and the support of the diasporas already in place 105 , and incorporated the benefits they were able to derive from the rapid growth of technology and the Internet network. This rapid growth translated in practice in a twofold movement: an increased diversification of illicit offerings, particularly in relation to the new technologies, and a progressive integration into the lawful economy through international money-laundering operations (buying 105 For example, the Albanian Mafia can count on a diaspora of 700,000 members (for a population of slightly over 3 million individuals), present primarily in Europe and the United States, to establish its hold on decentralised local crime. 62
Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the integrity of sport shares, setting up companies, buying businesses etc.) in financially and legally welcoming markets. Criminal organisations diversified their activity by extending their (traditionally illegal) fields of action and investing in entire areas of economic activity 106 . The profits from their activities enable them to avail themselves of the services of the leading experts in a wide range of domains (solicitors, corporate lawyers, specialists in increasingly sophisticated financing arrangements, IT experts, lobbyists etc.), and also help some criminals to pass themselves off as respectable businessmen and merge easily into political and economic circles. After 11 September 2001, the fight against terrorism in Western countries to some extent relegated the fight against transnational organised crime to second place, allowing criminal organisations to invest in new areas of the economy with relative impunity for nearly 10 years. Gambling represents a particularly attractive sector for organised crime, particularly in France where it is a preferred investment sector 107 .Some criminal organisations specialise specifically in sports-related corruption, e.g. the Singaporean fixers acting for the benefit of the Asian triads 108 . For others, it is a primary activity, as in the case of the Bochum affair where Croatians counted a prostitution and money-laundering network among their other criminal activities. In the light of these developments, intelligence, collecting data and sharing information are essential to effectively combat these transnational criminal organisations, which are increasingly diversifying their activities. -The fight against organised crime today In France, a body was set up in 2009 to centralise information relating to organised crime - SIRASCO (the department of intelligence, information and strategic analysis of organised crime). Its remit is to centralise information on the involvement and penetration of organised crime in trafficking of various types and to take an interest in their specific characteristics and methods of organisation, lines of communication and areas of activity. SIRASCO uses a database (VASCO: analytic and strategic view of organised crime) to compile information at interdepartmental level. This type of national institution, whose purpose is to provide an overview of the activities of criminal organisations in the country, may help to aggregate information on corruption in sport. In 2006, the UK set up SOCA (Serious Organized Crime Agency) with the same desire of establishing an overall approach to organised crime. It is important that public authorities at national level understand the risk in their own country, but this is not enough to combat the transnational dynamics now in operation. National specialisation does however create favourable conditions for developing bridges of international cooperation, particularly between police forces. 106 By way of illustration, criminal organisations that originally derived their income mainly from theft, extortion, smuggling and drug-smuggling are now integrated and established in all spheres of the legal economy (real estate, public works, waste treatment, finance, communication and the media, transport, entertainment and the performing arts, restaurants, night clubs, film studios etc.). 107 http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2011/11/16/01016-20111116ARTFIG00623-pietro-grasso-la-france-cible-de-lamafia.php 108 http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Sports/Story/A1Story20111117-311087.html 63
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Sports betting and corruption: How to preserve the - SportAccord

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