England 2018 hoping for a corrupt World Cup

I see the bid team to bring England the World Cup in 2018 has called on the government for a betting levy , in the apparent belief that it will make it more likely that they win the bid. If ever anything was designed to bring corruption to the event, this is it. Introducing a betting levy for the World Cup would be crazy, and would fuel corruption in an event which is already mooted to be a target for it in some games - the subject, indeed, of Declan Hill's book The Fix.

It comes as little surprise that the organisation behind the call is SROC, whose new Chairman, Nick Bitel, calls for Britain to follow the French model of licensing. The irony of his doing so in a week when the French have themselves admitted that they have managed to capture only 25% of the illegal market , and have been called upon the reduce the cap on "minimum return to player" which is, along with its onerous turnover tax, the reason that the 25% number is so low (because it makes it impossible for the legal market to compete with the illegal one) appears to be lost on him.

Let us hope for the good of the World Cup that it is not lost on the government.