Illegal Sports Betting

Kate Hoey
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what steps her Department is taking with (a) EU and (b) other countries to combat illegal betting in sport;

(2) what discussions her Department has held with (a) EU and (b) other countries sports ministers on tackling illegal betting from overseas on UK sporting events.

Mr. Caborn
I outlined the Government's internal arrangements to protect the integrity of sporting events on which betting takes place with Jean-Francois Lamour, French Minister for Youth, the Sports and Community Life at a recent meeting in Paris. I have subsequently written to Monsieur Lamour explaining these arrangements in more detail.

The Gambling Commission works closely with gambling regulators in other jurisdictions on a range of issues, including mechanisms for exchanging information on gambling operators and procedures to address illegal practices in gambling.

Kate Hoey
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what measures are in place to assist (a) the Gambling Commission and (b) sports governing bodies to monitor betting from overseas on sporting events that are run in the UK.

Mr. Caborn
The Gambling Commission may, once the provisions of the Gambling Act 2005 are implemented in September 2007, require any betting operator it licenses to provide information on bets that are placed with that operator. The Commission may share that information with the sports governing bodies listed under Schedule 6 of the Gambling Act. While the Gambling Commission has no jurisdiction over betting operators licensed outside Great Britain, it is continuing to build upon its co-operative relationships with overseas gambling regulators.

The Government have worked with sports governing bodies to develop a 10 point plan which facilitates information sharing between sports bodies and betting operators.

So far eleven sports bodies have signed up to the voluntary plan and an increasing number have Memoranda of Understanding with betting operators allowing for the sharing of information about suspicious betting patterns or individuals betting with those operators here or abroad.