Allegations of involvement of organized crime in Australian sport

Published in: Latest Intelligence By Peter Cohen

Australian sporting circles have been in uproar since the country’s national crime commission said last month that professional athletes were widely using illegal substances and suggested this could affect the integrity of the sports.

While the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) is not a traditional law enforcement agency, its findings carry significant weight and can lead to federal or state prosecution. The agency’s “Organised Crime and Drugs in Sport” report however did not name any specific athletes, clubs, leagues or even sports to protect ongoing investigations. 

The lack of detail fuelled some allegations that the report’s release was politically motivated and an outcry that the agency’s approach had cast a cloud on all Australian sports. Commission officials subsequently said that players with six National Rugby League clubs and one Australian Football League club were involved in alleged drug taking and that drug use involved “a number of sports”.

Along with findings on the use of illegal and inappropriate substances, the report also raised two specific concerns with respect to corrupt betting practices. The first is that athletes using illegal substances may have an unfair advantage and therefore compromise the fairness of a contest on which bets are placed. The second is that organised crime might cultivate relationships with athletes taking illegal substances with the ultimate aim of manipulating their activities on the field, potentially through threats to expose the players’ use of improper substances. 

Betting operators, gambling regulators, government agencies and sports officials are now having to confront the issues raised in the report. 

Properly managed professional sports already have integrity units charged with the responsibility of protecting any aspect of their sport that might be compromised. The sports know that it is in their interests to do so but some are still grappling with the scope of issues that need to be pursued.

The sports generally have agreements with betting operators licensed in Australia to exchange information related to gaming integrity such as unusual betting transactions or the placing of bets by individuals within sporting organisations who are not allowed to wager.

Law enforcement agencies are also moving to ensure that they have the necessary capabilities to enforce relevant laws. Within days of the ACC report being released, police in the state of Victoria, which hosts Australian Open tennis and a Formula 1 race among other events, announced the establishment of a new Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit.

The report could give new impetus to a push for legislation to make it an imprisonable offence – to cheat at sport for the intention of financial gain. It could also push other states to adopt sports betting legislation like that passed by Victoria in 2007 as the governments come under pressure to show they take the issue of sports corruption seriously.

Though Victoria’s law only covers sports events within the state, the state’s importance as the host of major sporting events has ensured a significant impact. The law set up a system for the state gambling regulator to recognize governing bodies for each sport with the requirement that such organizations ban participants and officials from betting on their own sport and adopt other sporting integrity procedures. 

Licensed betting operators can only accept bets on a sport if they have a written agreement with the recognized governing body to exchange information and ensure sporting integrity. The recognized governing bodies gained the ability to ban problematic types of bets if, for example, they see a vulnerability to bet fixing.

Federal Senator Nick Xenophon, a well-known anti-gambling crusader, called for a temporary suspension of sports betting in the wake of the ACC report. 

But his suggestion has gained little support and seems unlikely to advance.

AGBrief advisor Peter Cohen is the Regulatory Affairs Director at The Agenda Group.