Police in Macau have uncovered and broken up two illegal gambling syndicates that have taken hundreds of millions of dollars in bets on the 2014 Fifa World Cup national team football tournament.
UK public-service broadcaster the BBC reports that 26 people were arrested during raids on a hotel in the Chinese special administrative region.
Those arrested come from mainland China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Police said bookmakers had been taking telephone and online bets from punters across the world, with evidence suggesting that one punter had placed a single bet of more than $5 million (€3.7 million).
Police carried out two separate raids on the hotel, with the first sweep uncovering a gambling syndicate that had been operating out of three rooms in the hotel.
Although gambling in mainland China is mainly illegal, it is allowed in Macau while Hong Kong also offers some sort of gambling service.
Regulators in the two former colonies have been clamping down on illegal betting for this summer’s World Cup.
In partnership with the Chinese province of Guangdong, Hong Kong police and Macau have set up a task force in order to work with Interpol across eight Asian countries.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph newspaper and UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 have alleged that the president of the Ghana Football Association agreed for the country’s national team to take part in international matches that were to be rigged.
The accusation comes as a result of an undercover investigation into football associations working with criminal gangs looking to fix scores in international games.
Telegraph reporters and a former Fifa investigator posed as individuals from an investment company that wanted to ‘sponsor’ games and met with registered Fifa agent Christopher Forsythe and Obed Nketiah, a senior figure in the Ghanaian FA, to discuss fixing matches.
An agreed contract stated that it would cost $100,000 for each match organised by the fixers involving Ghana and would allow the bogus investment company to appoint match officials, breaching Fifa rules.
At a later meeting, the reporters were introduced to Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi, who in turn approved the contract and agreed to a trial game, identifying two months in which it could take place.
Speaking to the BBC in response to the report, Nyantakyi said: “The contents of the publication are not wholly true.
“I have not agreed to any match-fixing deal involving the FA.
“I was given a draft contract which I indicated to their agent that I hadn’t read and I also had some issues with it and so it will be premature for anybody to say the FA is at fault.”
The Ghanaian FA also confirmed it has instructed the Ghana Police Service to investigate both Forsythe and Nketiah for “misrepresenting the GFA with an attempt to defraud”.
The matter has also been reported to Fifa and the Confederation of African Football governing bodies.
Elsewhere, two businessmen and a footballer convicted of plotting to fix football matches in England have been handed jail sentences.
Last week, iGaming Business reported that Singapore national Chann Sankaran and Krishna Ganeshan, a UK national originally from Sri Lanka, were convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Michael Boateng, who played for Whitehawk FC in the Conference South sixth-tier of English football, was also found guilty.
Sankaran and Ganeshan, both 44, were handed five-year sentences while 22-year-old Boateng was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
The National Crime Agency confirmed that it is continuing to work with the UK Gambling Commission and English Football Association as part of its ongoing investigation into match-fixing in English football.
source : www.igamingbusiness.com
