Tatts Group CEO Robbie Cooke has warned federal MPs not to be "duped" by a sophisticated lobbying campaign by foreign bookmakers in an "explosive first public foray into the in-play betting debate from the listed wagering and lotteries giant," according to Rick Wallace of THE AUSTRALIAN. Cooke wrote to federal MPs warning them not to deregulate in-play betting at the behest of "offshore gambling behemoths" intent on spiriting the extra profits to their "offshore shareholders." Cooke: "I write to you as the CEO of Australia’s largest non-casino gambling group to express my deep concerns that the Australian government is being duped into making changes to the current wagering regulatory landscape. For some time a group of self-interested foreign-owned bookmakers and their disingenuously named representative body, the Australian Wagering Council, have staged an orchestrated campaign to achieve their long-held ambition to extinguish the current prohibition on in-play betting on sport over the internet in Australia." Tatts, which operates the Queensland, South Australian and Tasmanian TABs throughout its UBET arm, and Tabcorp, which runs the Victorian and NSW TABs, "have the most to lose in the current environment where in-play betting is offered by their foreign-based rivals using systems that circumvent laws stating live bets must be placed by phone only" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 2/4).
