2024-04-30 20:54:05
Organized by the community of the illegal betting: the Council of Europe and the MDJS at the heart of the fight”>Macolin Convention, a legal instrument of international law on the manipulation of sports competitions, with the support of the Marocaine des jeux et des sports (MDJS), this conference aims to debate effective means of combating illegal betting, a phenomenon that affects the integrity of sports practice.
In a statement to the press on this occasion, the Minister of National Education, Preschool and Sports, Chakib Benmoussa, indicated that this conference organized in collaboration with the Council of Europe and the Copenhagen Group concretizes the Morocco‘s commitment to the fight against illegal betting through the signing of the Macolin Convention, noting that the phenomenon of illegal betting also has impacts relating to social and security aspects, such as money laundering.
“Morocco set up, last May, a platform with all stakeholders to strengthen the fight against illegal betting,” he said, noting that this conference will allow this platform to integrate the network of actors and benefit from international experiences in the fight against this phenomenon.
In a similar statement, the president of the Follow-up Committee of the Macolin Convention, Georgios Mavrotas stressed that “this meeting is very important because the phenomenon of illegal betting is one of the most serious problems affecting sport, which requires the mobilization of all stakeholders to preserve the integrity of sporting practice at the international level”.
“Efforts to combat illegal betting have sparked cooperation between the Council of Europe, the signatory states of the Macolin Convention and the international sports movement,” he said.
For his part, the president of the Copenhagen Group, the international network of national platforms fighting illegal betting, said that the conference aims to encourage the mobilization of all countries against illegal gaming sites, “for his part, What we realize today is that organized crime is attacking the entire financing of sport and is accentuating the phenomenon of gambling addiction.
“Stakeholders have decided to move to a counter-offensive against organized crime,” he noted, adding that the presence of several high-level experts and speakers at this conference shows international interest and commitment in the fight against illegal betting.
For her part, Sophie Kwasny, executive secretary of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), a Council of Europe cooperation platform aimed at making sport more ethical and more inclusive, stressed that the aim of this conference is to raise awareness of the Macolin Convention, of which Morocco is a signatory country, and to support all operators and actors in this fight against illegal betting, welcoming the presence of several countries at this meeting which addresses of a crucial subject for the integrity of sport.
She added that “today, we are talking about organized crime, manipulation and money laundering, but with the tool of the Macolin Convention, the actors work together to ensure that legislation is harmonized and that we have the same means of action at the international level”.
This conference, held under the theme “Preserving the integrity of sport by fighting against illegal betting”, is organized on the sidelines of the holding, on November 8 and 9 in Rabat, of the fifth meeting of the Copenhagen Group and the consultative group of the monitoring committee of the Magglingen convention.
2024-04-30 20:54:05