3 ms·
Yes, it is a crime. First, the money being paid out to the fixer doesn’t appear out of thin air. There is a counterparty to the transaction that is literally be
by rcme 3y ago
Yes, it is a crime. First, the money being paid out to the fixer doesn’t appear out of thin air. There is a counterparty to the transaction that is literally being stolen from when the fixer fixes a match. But more importantly, this is likely being done to launder money. Dirty money goes to the players and clean money comes to the fixers in the form of gambling winnings.
- mschuster91 3y ago> There is a counterparty to the transaction that is literally being stolen from when the fixer fixes a match. Not really. Almost no real persons bet on obscure low rank tennis matches... the betting companies know exactly what their role in all of this is, they won't bat an eye unless you completely screw over their financials or draw attention to them - all in all, they still make a fuckton of money. Most importantly, the "gamblers" usually hedge their bets in the case of something going wrong unexpectedly. That keeps the risk low on average for the "gamblers", the loss from the betting service's profit and taxes (aka the spread between win/loss quotas) is way cheaper than other commonly used forms of money laundering. Hell, you can launder money with gambling just fine even if you're not involved in fixing matches. Been a decade ago since I had someone explain this to me (I worked in a bar/slot machine joint, adjacent to a betting place), but in general it works by having a ton of people, immigrants from the mastermind's network, using combination bets (e.g. 4 out of 6) with "safe" bets (i.e. pay-outs just an inch above pay-in). They would get 1000€ in the morning, spend all their day at the betting place, and return the money and betting slips to account for it. Even if they'd lose a few hundred, the bosses didn't care as long as they got the slips to back it up. Cops can't do a thing as the bets are all legit and taxes been paid.
- quickthrower2 3y agoI don’t get it. If this is true why don’t the betting companies just not offer low ranking matches?
- virtue3 3y agoBecause you'd have to fund a create a betting body that organizes this data and determines when it's low ranking or not. We don't need an SEC for tennis; what a colossal waste of taxpayer resources.
- quickthrower2 3y agoThe betting company already analyses for suspicious bets and so on. If certain betting markets look more trouble than they are worth they can independently decide not to offer them. The tax payer is not involved.
- vmilner 3y agoThat (betting pattern analysis) certainly happens in snooker betting and snooker has only around 100 to 200 pro players.
- rcme 3y agoThis doesn’t really make sense for a number of reasons. This investigation began after reports of suspicious betting. Those reports must have come from bookmakers who felt they were being ripped off. And the bookmakers only stand to lose from this behavior because they’re the ones who have to pay out. And yes, you can launder money through a casino. But you lose a lot.
- csomar 3y agoI thought bookmakers are delta-neutral. Otherwise, they are gamblers and not really bookmakers?
- bombolo 3y ago[dead]
- londons_explore 3y agoThey try to be, but I think they have to put some of their own cash into the pot with small markets to establish initial odds
- rcme 3y agoThey’re market makers. They can’t be entirely delta neutral. There are things called betting exchanges where you can buy and sell bets with other people, and those can be neutral if the operator doesn’t act as a market maker but then there are many situations where people won’t be able to place bets.
- analog31 3y agoHow do the players explain the income? Or is it just not noticed?
- FrankoDelMar 3y agoI would imagine they accept the cash and never let it touch their books. $10-15,000 isn't much money to hide.