Interpol had last year in October a very large operation involving Australia, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to stop the illegal soccer gambling which resulted in 423 arrests in 266 raids across the region, 272 underground gambling dens shut down and $680 million US worth of illegal bets. Now, Interpol is prepared to start a second operation in Asia.
“Gambling on soccer matches might seem as harmless as placing a small bet on your favorite team, but these illegal operations are often controlled by organized criminals, said Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble at the organization’s Global Conference on Asian Organized Crime in Singapore.
Ronald Noble said that “we’ve already started planning for the second phase of Soga [Soccer Gambling]”
Having in view the future the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, that will take place in Austria and Switzerland, from 7 to 29 June 2008, UEFA (Union of European football Association) president Michel Platini says that corruption in football can pose to the integrity of the game after many European games were noted as possibly being fixed.
“We were so successful with the first phase, we know it’s like cutting off the head of a Hydra”, said Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble of the operation codenamed SOGA, short for Soccer Gambling.
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