ARF Anti-Illegal Betting Quarterly Bulletins

Quarterly Bulletins

The ARF Council on Anti-illegal Betting and Related Financial Crime produces a quarterly newsletter advising stakeholders about the latest developments in illegal betting and financial crime threatening horse racing and other sports. Each bulletin contains one or two articles on key issues, and new research in this area and analysis of implications for regulators, sports governing bodies and other stakeholders, as well as a curated list of important news articles in the field.

February 2024

February 2, 2024

How Illegal Betting and Related Money Laundering Flourished Despite 'Crypto Winter' explores how the use of cryptocurrencies – particularly Tether – is now increasingly the norm in illegal betting markets as we enter 2024.

New Research shows the Massive Scale of Illegal Betting in South Korea ARF Council member Tak Sung Hyun provides a summary in English of the research prepared and published by the Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice, which includes key findings, and recommendations to tackle this huge problem of illegal betting.

The Model of Combatting Illegal Betting outlines the components of a national model that is an example to other countries in combatting illegal betting, which requires collaboration between government agencies, private sector entities in the technology and finance sectors, racing and sports operators as well as regulators.

November 2023

November 6, 2023

How Live Streaming is Boosting Illegal Betting illustrates how technology platforms popular among youth are being exploited by illegal betting operators to promote their products, especially on the exploitation of live-platforms to promote cryptocurrency betting sites.

Lessons from a Life Spent Protecting Racing from Illegal Betting – How Monitoring Betting Markets is the Key to Safeguard Racing Integrity ARF Council member Kim Kelly shares key guiding principles as former Chief Stipendiary Steward with the Hong Kong Jockey Club on how to be an effective racing Steward to uphold the confidence and integrity of the sport.

Advertising of Betting Websites in India explores the complex set of regulations revolving promotions for online betting and the loopholes that have allowed betting websites to function, evade enforcement and led to a surge in such advertising.

August 2023

August 18, 2023

Cooperation between Racing and Other Sports with Law Enforcement Agencies highlights the importance of ensuing a clear identification of roles and cooperation between racing and other sports with law enforcement agencies to protect the integrity of racing and other sports.

Recent Racing Integrity Cases Involving Betting: Britain - Danny Brock & Others; Australia - Tommy Berry & Others reviews two recent racing integrity investigations, one from Britain and one from Australia involving allegations that jockeys conspired to supply privileged information to others for mutual financial gain and to the detriment of their sport.

Back to the Future - Macau Junkets and Illegal Betting shows how Macau junket operators and their close associates in Chinese organised crime groups (triad societies) have long been key drivers of online illegal betting in Asia (both sports betting and online casino).

May 2023

May 2, 2023

Transnational Crime, Money Laundering and Illegal Online Bettingin Southeast Asia examines illegal online betting and gambling in Southeast Asia in the context of transnational crime and money laundering in the region.

INTERPOL – Combatting Illegal Betting andMoney Laundering during the Qatar World Cup explains how INTERPOL is uniquely placed to enable worldwide law enforcement agencies to work together beyond borders to tackle corruption in sport and target illegal betting through operational response, analytical support and capacitybuilding.

How the World Lottery Association Approaches Illegal Betting and Works to Protect the Integrity of Sport to ensure that the lotteries and sports betting operators continue to provide legal betting services and products that are safe and secure, while entertaining for all.

February 2023

February 1, 2023

Token Gestures - The Impact of Emerging New Technologies on Racing and Other Sports highlights how emerging technologies (e.g. Web3, NFTs, Metaverse, GameFi, etc.) are changing how betting operators deliver their products and how customers see betting.

The Displacement of Illegal Betting and Transnational Organised Crime provides an overview of how Illegal Betting and Organised Crime is spreading.

The Formation of Law Enforcement in Sports Integrity in Victoria is a personal sharing from former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police on why and how the Sports Integrity Intelligence Unit was established.

October 2022

October 24, 2022

The three in-depth articles from ARF Council members in this edition deep dives into topics such as sports betting data, Ireland's gambling regulatory reforms, and recent illegal betting typologies in Asia.

August 2022

August 12, 2022

The three in-depth articles from ARF Council members in this edition deep dives into issues related to illegal betting and financial crime impacting integrity in racing and other sports.

May 2022

May 18, 2022

This bulletin highlights and summarises ARF Council's major new publication ‘The State of Illegal Betting’, which can be downloaded here, as well as articles regarding Macau casino junkets and illegal betting and tote manipulation for illegal market betting.

January 2022

January 26, 2022

In this bulletin, ARF Council members Douglas Robinson and James Porteous describe social media advertising of illegal betting in Hong Kong and illustrate the growing trend of illegal betting operators flooding social media channels with advertising to reach new demographics of customers, in particular younger people in Generation Z.

October 2021

October 27, 2021

In this bulletin, Professor Sally Gainsbury, Director of Gambling Treatment & Research Clinic at the University of Sydney, shares research finding which looks into how legitimate websites, regulators and authorities can use behavioural science to steer customers away from illegal operators, and also explores factors that caused a person to pick one gambling website over another.

July 2021

July 1, 2021

This edition of the Quarterly Bulletin highlights two important issues related to illegal betting that have wider relevance to integrity in horse racing and other sports.

ARF Council Member Tim Robinson highlights an important case study in Australia where Racing Victoria collaborated with the Victoria Police to protect the integrity of their racing.

ARF Council Member Brant Dunshea explains the increased use of unauthorised drones intruding onto racecourses.

May 2021

May 1, 2021

The issue of use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the betting industry is critical as illegal betting operators move quickly to adapt to new technologies and regulatory loopholes/grey areas, leading to an advantage in illegal markets over legal betting markets. Unregulated cryptocurrencies are a fundamental threat to legal, licensed, regulated betting markets as they allow customers to play anonymously and operators to avoid Anti-Money Laundering procedures. The legal betting industry as well as credible regulators need to urgently cooperate to ensure that effective regulatory structures and processes are developed in order to avoid cryptocurrencies benefitting the growth of the illegal betting markets, and in doing so further funding transnational organised crime groups.

January 2021

January 1, 2021

In this edition, Graham Ashton explains why horse racing is ideally placed to help protect sports integrity and prevent organised criminality from infiltrating sport. As a former commissioner of police who established one of the first law enforcement sports integrity units, Graham is well placed to explain why horse racing has matured with the inter-relationship between its product and betting, and led the development of sports anti-corruption measures.

Also, James Porteous, Council Secretary, gives an overview of our new publication, Good Practices in Addressing Illegal Betting: A Handbook for Horse Racing and Other Sports to Uphold Integrity. All of the members of the Council have collaborated to compile this essential guide to protecting integrity in horse racing and other sports from corruption caused by illegal betting.

October 2020

October 1, 2020

In this bulletin, Professor Jack Anderson, Director of Studies, Sports Law, at the University of Melbourne provides a summary of a study conducted for Harness Racing Victoria which shows the positive impact on horse racing and other sports of integrity units.

July 2020

July 1, 2020

In this first bulletin, we outline changes in the betting markets resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and what this may mean for betting on horse racing and sports in the longer term.