The IOC has is embracing gambling. Of course they get a cut but will the athletes? NO, Of course not, the money will go to the federations, the cartels and the regimes! None of that is hyperbole either. IOC President Jacques Rogge blurted it out with a straight face!
From CasinoGamblingWeb.com:
Athletes will be exploited further unless they can collectively argue for a share and as usual the rich will get richer and the athletes will get poorer!
"... Specifically, we are in favor of a system where betting operators have to be licensed by the government," said IOC President Jacques Rogge, in a conference call the day before he expects to unveil the plan. "Sports organizers, national federations, and international federations would have a fair return for all their efforts for organizing the sport. They should be recognized with a return from financial income."
The premise is one that gamblers have been shouting for years. Instead of pretending the gambling does not exist, give the sports and the teams a piece of the billions of dollars that are being wagered on their games. Regulation is also needed to ensure integrity within a game.
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Athletes will be exploited further unless they can collectively argue for a share and as usual the rich will get richer and the athletes will get poorer!
3 comments:
"Instead of pretending the gambling does not exist, give the sports and the teams a piece of the billions of dollars that are being wagered on their games. Regulation is also needed to ensure integrity within a game."...
Replace "gambling" with "steroids".
Sure, I may be reaching here, but can they really believe this is a good idea to protect the integrity of the Olympic Games? Do they really believe that this doesn't open up the potential for race, competition fixing? If the IOC, the USOC, USA Swimming don't figure out a way to pay the athletes... do they really think the gamblers won't figure out a way?
Treat athletics strictly from business terms, and you' open up the potential for corruption, greed, and problems that come with business. There needs to be a mix of business and some moral standards that should be higher than anywhere else... not just falling to the lowest common denominator just because someone else is doing it.
Glenn - What you said!!! Absolutely!!
One the unintended consequences of the athelet's pay-scales in the "big" sports - baseball, American football, football, basketball, etc. - is that those sports are, for the most part, free of match fixing scandals. It's tough to bribe someone making $6.0 million a year, let alone $30.0 million!
You'll note most of the match fixing issues in the sports I've mentioned above occur with the referees because they are not as well paid.
Betting on Olympic swimming, where the athletes make, for the most part, barely a living wage and where the bets can be in the millions is a recipe for absolute disaster. Should this go forward, the match fixing / race fixing scandal is a when, not if.
Governing bodies generally use a bait and witch mission statement so as to bamboozle the athlete and then leverage their talents for money.
Here is the bait: "Be the best in the world and represent your country and the Olympic ideals of peace and harmonious alignment to make this world a better place."
The switch: "Oh well, there is still war and poverty so let's instead leverage your belief in those silly "go team" nationalistic ideals morals of yours and make a ton of money off the sweat of your labor and leverage any sort of revenue option we can grab! :-p
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