The World Lottery Association (WLA) has announced that it has ramped up activities to combat match fixing and other illicit activities which impact the industry.
“Together with other stakeholders, we are leading this global fight,” the WLA says. In a deeper look into the topic, which is done in the association’s magazine, the Chair of the WLA, Jean-Luc Moner-Banet, expands on the issues the industry is currently facing.
“Our industry faces a number of important challenges. For instance, we must always find a balance between not overregulating and sending bettors to illegal markets, while keeping regulated lottery offerings relevant and responsible.
“Related to this, our members must continually educate sports bettors as to why they should choose legal rather than illegal operators.
“They must find effective ways to communicate this with their customers, who may not be aware of the impact illegal operators can have on the integrity of sport, and loss of funds to good causes.”
WLA shares details of new project to develop guidelines to assess services by the betting industry
When asked how the committee is supporting members in addressing these concerns, Moner-Banet explains the recent actions that have taken place.
“Over the past year, the Committee has developed useful materials for members, including the Anti-money laundering best practices guide, with insights into the attraction of betting markets for money launderers, the impact of evolving technologies, and useful measures to establish, in order to better protect themselves from potential money launderers.”
The WLA’s annual Sports Betting Seminar, co-organized with the European Lotteries, was focused on the theme ‘future proofing sports betting – integrity and innovation in lottery offerings.’ The event attracted over 100 participants from numerous regions to discuss the latest trends.
To really push its commitment to combating these issues, the WLA has a project underway with the Council of Europe (CoE) to develop guidelines which aim to define a set of criteria and thresholds that can be used to assess the provision of services by the betting industry.
“The objective is to ensure that operators prioritize individuals/teams, competitions, and markets (betting types) with high integrity standards and those individuals/teams and competitions where there is already a high level of customer interest in betting on the outcome of an event.
“We hope this will also strengthen cooperation with relevant authorities, sports governing bodies and jurisdictions, in cases where concerns exist regarding the prevention, detection, prosecution, and awareness of match-fixing.”
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