Internet Casinos Work with Olympics to Prevent Corruption

European online casinos will provide information on sports betting activities to help the Olympics avoid match-fixing and corruptive influences.

The International Olympic Committee has agreed to work with online casinos to stave off corruption and prevent match-fixing. The sport monitoring arm of the Olympics will combine efforts with the bookmaker-funded European Sports Security Association to safeguard the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Games in London.

The agreement is consistent with most European sports policies, which tend to embrace the cooperation and help of online casinos rather than blame them for potential gambling influence. Realizing that gaming sites are the direct target of match-fixing, European sports have adopted a cooperative policy that allows the sharing of information to both sides' benefit.

The Olympic deal will allow the Olympics' International Sports Monitoring  to make use of the Early Warning System devised by the ESSA, which observes suspicious betting patterns and line movement.

"The Olympics are the most prestigious sports competition in the world," said the Secretary General of the ESSA, Khalid Ali. "Therefore it is vitally important that the betting industry works hand in hand with the IOC to keep its competitions clean and free from potential event manipulation."

Any unusual or irregular activity will be reported to the International Olympic Committee, which will handle investigations and deal with any potential prosecutions.