Int'l Centre for Sports Security Exec Dir Chris Eaton said that betting fraud and match-fixing are "part of the reason why China and India have achieved little" in football despite their huge populations, according to Mike Collett of REUTERS. Eaton urged governments to "take more control of the problem and said the sport was a victim and not the cause of widespread betting fraud." He said that countries should follow the U.S. in moving toward "transparent, legalised, regulated and supervised sport betting, so there will be far less money to fix football or any other sports matches." Eaton said that more than 80 countries in the world had "suffered from match-fixing in the last five years, but the two Asian giants had suffered more than most." Eaton: "The core crime here is not the match-fix but betting fraud, (betting on the fixed match). The frauds are mostly taking place out of money from China. The amount of money gambled in China on sport or by other Chinese in south-east Asia is probably around $800 billion a year. ... India should also be a powerhouse in world football but it is not, because of match-fixing in cricket for goodness sake" (REUTERS, 5/3).
