Sports federations and authorities across the globe fear for the integrity of sports amid the growing expansion of betting activities. Besides match-fixing, gambling activities may also impact the lives of professional athletes with threats and hateful messages being posted on social media by angered punters.

Tasked with safeguarding, encouraging and enhancing the integrity of professional tennis worldwide, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), constantly monitors the sport. The regulatory body enforces tough penalties against tennis officials and athletes involved in unlawful activities.

On Thursday, the ITIA confirmed it imposed a sanction against one tennis umpire from Slovenia. ITIA’s sanction is against Marko Ducman, a Slovenian international-level tennis official. According to the Agency, the umpire admitted to breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP) related to gambling.

A statement released by the ITIA confirms that Ducman admitted to a total of four TACP breaches. The violations relate to wagering on tennis matches. Moreover, the Slovenian bronze badge official admitted to manipulating data from matches they officiated and engaged in wagering.

Throughout his career, Ducman officiated at WTA, ATP and ITF tournaments. Due to the aforementioned breaches, he was banned from the sport for 10 years and six months. Ducman was provisionally suspended on September 8, 2023. The ITIA explained that his time under provisional suspension will be credited against the period of the ban. This otherwise means that the umpire’s suspension from the sport will end on March 7, 2034.

The Slovenian Umpire Received a Fine in Addition to the Ban

Besides the 10-year suspension, the ITIA fined Ducman $75,000 with $56,250 suspended. According to the watchdog, the Slovenian tennis official agreed to cooperate fully with its investigation and “accepted an agreed sanction,” effectively waiving his right to a hearing before an independent Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer.

Similar to other bans imposed by the ITIA, the umpire won’t be allowed to officiate at any tennis event sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis. Additionally, the suspension effectively prohibits him from attending such events as well.

The latest sanction comes after back in September, ITIA provisionally suspended French player Maxence Broville. At the time of the announcement, the Agency confirmed the player failed to comply with one of its demands. Moreover, the ITIA did not rule out the possibility of Broville breaching the TACP rules.

Earlier in the year, ITIA banned for life the French tennis professional player, Alexis Musialek, due to breaches related to match-fixing. Upon announcing the sanction, the watchdog said that it uncovered a total of 39 breaches of the TACP rules.

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The global independent body established to protect the integrity of tennis around the world, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), announced it imposed a new regulatory sanction against a Bolivian tennis chair umpire. The ITIA said that the umpire, Heriberto Morales Churata, received a temporary ban from the sport after an investigation uncovered that he manipulated scores for betting purposes.

The aforementioned breaches, the Agency said, date back to events in 2021, as well as 2022, within the ITF World Tennis Tour. The umpire, who is also a green badge official, manipulated data for some of the events by entering incorrect scores into a handheld device. As a result, Churata was sanctioned by the ITIA with a six-year ban.

In light of the ban, the umpire is prohibited to officiate at any tennis event that is authorized or sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis. What’s more, the ban restricts Churata from attending events under the ITIA. Besides the six-year ban, the Agency imposed a $10,000 fine against the Bolivian tennis umpire.

“Morales Churata, a green badge official, was found to have manipulated scores for betting purposes by incorrectly entering scores into the handheld device at ITF World Tennis Tour events in 2021 and 2022. In addition to the ban, the official has been fined $10,000,“

explains a statement released by the ITIA

The Tennis Integrity Body Uncovers Multiple Breaches

Upon investigating, the ITIA uncovered multiple breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). The integrity watchdog explained that it found that Churata breached Section D.1.b, Section D.1.m and Section D.2.b.i of the 2021 TACP. Those sections prohibit covered persons from manipulating the outcomes of tennis matches and demand any breaches to be reported.

Additionally, the ITIA said that the umpire breached the same sections from the 2022 TACP. Five breaches were recorded for each of the sections, while at the same time, Churata breached Section D.2.b.ii of the 2021 and 2022 TACP. This section in particular requires any suspected manipulations or breaches to be reported.

According to the ITIA, the latest case was dealt under its 2023 TACP “agreed sanction” framework which allows the implementation of a sanction without a hearing and upon admission of the offenses. As a result, Churata’s ban was implemented on December 8, 2022, which marked the start of his provisional suspension. Given the sanction, the umpire will be banned from the sport through December 7, 2028.

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Australia has no online casinos licensed in the country even though federal law allows states and territories to license and regulate internet slots and table games. However, home and mobile sports betting is licensed for punters there.

According to the country’s primary banking trade organization, there’s a big gap between financial protections online and on land so the Australian Banking Association (ABA) is asking the government to ban the use of credit cards at online sports betting sites.

The request comes decades after credit cards were banned for gambling at the land-based sportsbooks and casinos there. The licensed online gambling industry did not even exist at the time land-based credit card gambling was prohibited but is now worth an estimated A$50 billion a year.

Credit Cards Already Banned for Land-based Gambling

The ABA’s CEO, Anna Bligh asks: “Why should it be possible to do something in the virtual world that is prohibited in the real world? Every pub with poker machines, every TAB and every trackside bookie already implemented this 23 years ago.”

Bligh wonders if gambling, as a product “is this something we should be providing credit for given what’s happening to our customers?”

According to a report in the Guardian, banks are not on a moral crusade with the initiative but instead are looking out for their own business interests. That said, the association is quite aware of the damage undisciplined gamblers can do to themselves very quickly with potential long-term negative consequences.

“This is just a product that is not suitable for credit,” said Bligh. “You can accrue a very, very large amount of debt in an incredibly short period of time and have nothing to show for it.

“Banks have seen the harm that is being done and they are very conscious of their responsibility as lenders to ask [hard questions].

The initiative would tend to lend itself more to ideation than implementation due to the way merchant category codes work. The international merchant category code (MCC) that has been used for online gambling transactions since soon after the US changed its payment processor rules for online gambling with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) can also be assigned to transactions involving charities that fundraise by selling lottery tickets.

MCCs are 4-digit numbers listed under the international standard ISO 18245 which currently doesn’t have a code for lottery tickets sold primarily for charity fundraising. In order to create one, advocates would need to apply through ISO/TC 68, Technical Committee 68 on Banking, Securities, and other Financial Services in Geneva, Switzerland. However, changes to ISOs such as adding a new MCC, are usually not entertained for industries generating less than $10m in revenues.

The ABA doesn’t seem interested in paying for changes through the Geneva process, indicating that gambling operators should have to deal with and pay for compliance on their own after a grace period to give them time to adjust.

Licensed Operator Body Supports Ban

Responsible Wagering Australia is an independent body for wagering service providers based in Australia. RWA members include well-known names such as bet365, Betfair, Entain, PointsBet, Sportsbet, and Unibet.

A spokesperson for the group said: “The RWA and its members have been at the forefront of the work to implement a credit card ban – having led the discussions with the banking industry to determine the technical solutions, and delivered them to the government. We cannot speak for other non-member gambling companies.”

While offshore casinos can run credit card gambling transactions through a form of potential money laundering by assigning “the wrong code” to deposit transactions, a few Australian banks have already banned their branded credit cards from being used for gambling transactions, which presumably disallows the purchase of lottery tickets sold for charity fundraising with a credit card. Bank Australia, Bank of Queensland, Citibank, and Suncorp will no longer process MCC 7995.

MPs Sharkie and Wilkie are each preparing legislation to address the issue as well as to introduce suspicious transaction reports to authorities with Rebekha Sharkie’s private member bill focused on banning online credit card gambling and Andrew Wilkie’s bill focused on proceeds of crimes and suspicious transaction report obligations.

Sharkie also wants operators to be required to inform bettors of ongoing losses prior to accepting further bets.

Source: Australian banks urge Albanese government to ban use of credit cards for online gambling, The Guardian, March 26, 2023

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