Gambling Regulators Give Australian Football Thumbs Up

Australian Football was given a clean bill of health as an investigation by gambling regulators turned up no evidence of deliberately lost matches.

After months of rumors of corruption and gambling influences amongst Australian football matches, a group of public gaming overseers says there is no evidence of thrown or tanked games. The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation concluded after weeks of study that the Australian Football League results are strictly on the up-and-up.

''We are satisfied that there is no evidence that tanking has occurred,'' Peter Cohen, executive commissioner of the regulatory group, told The Age.

After reviewing league policies, the commission says it found measures and rules implemented by the AFL to be sufficient in guarding the integrity of match results.

Statements by disgruntled players had openly questioned team strategies and left unanswered the questions as to the nature of some losses. At least one player said tanking had become commonplace in the AFL.

The AFL itself is not content to rest on the commission's findings regarding the influence of gambling and sports betting. The league is asking clubs to acquire permission from players to allow examination of such private information as phone records, in order to scrutinize events for signs of undue gambling influence.