Page 2369 - Week 08 - Thursday, 6 June 2013
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In February this year, the Australian Crime Commission released a report titled Organised crime and drugs in sport. This report highlighted the concern that organised crime groups were targeting elite and sub-elite athletes with an aim of having the athletes participate in match-fixing activities.
Today the government is addressing identified risks to integrity in sport and gambling with the introduction of this bill. The bill also recognises that ACT law provides criminal sanctions for a broad range of dishonest and fraudulent conduct.
The bill inserts three new offences into the Criminal Code 2002 to criminalise specific match-fixing behaviours and cheating at gambling activities.
The first offence will criminalise engaging in conduct that results in a corrupt betting outcome for an event, and obtaining a financial advantage or causing a financial disadvantage in connection with betting on the event. This offence will deal with actions that corrupt a betting outcome, such as deliberate underperformance or “tanking”, interference with a playing surface, or any actions likely to affect the outcome of betting, contrary to standards of integrity. It is also intended to capture someone who pays another person, or puts pressure on another person, to engage in such conduct.
The aim of this offence is not to criminalise the making of tactical decisions for reasons other than affecting a betting outcome, or breaking the rules of a sport. The aim is to prevent deliberate cheating aimed at affecting betting outcomes for a financial advantage or to cause a financial disadvantage.
The second offence prohibits betting while possessing information about a corrupt betting outcome. The purpose of this provision is to prohibit a person who possesses information about a fixed event from doing something that results in a bet on that event. The offence extends to encouraging another person to bet on an event or telling someone else about the fix where the person knows the other person is likely to bet on the event.
To prove this offence, it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove that a bet was actually placed by the first person or another person. However, the person needs to engage in conduct, and the person needs to possess information and be reckless as to whether it is corrupt conduct information.
The maximum penalty for these first two offences is 10 years imprisonment. This penalty is consistent with penalties for other serious fraud and dishonesty offences in the Criminal Code 2002.
The final offence in the bill relates to betting with inside information and carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.
The New South Wales Law Reform Commission report titled Cheating at gambling notes that inside information relating to sports can be of considerable importance to certain criminal syndicates that employ sports betting in support of money-laundering
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