Gambling: Legal

Gambling is one of the classic activities of organized crime, and criminals—who are often pathological gamblers themselves—remain attracted to it even if authorities decide to decriminalize the market and allow licenses to bona fide operators. Generally, three main crime problems related to legal gambling can be distinguished.

First, there is the risk of criminal groups obtaining permits for legal gambling operations and using these to generate a legitimate source of income or to gain illegal money by “skimming” taxes or by scamming the players. Second, criminals may misuse games run by official operators for money laundering. Third, criminals may “fix” sports matches and then wager substantial amounts of money on the outcome with legitimate betting companies. Since the emergence of online gambling in the mid-1990s, particularly ...