International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has called on China to help stamp out the 'scourge' threatening global sport - illegal gambling. Rogge, writing in the China Daily, singled out China's contribution to the fight against what he describes as the corruption 'cancer'.
His appeal was made ahead of the first ever closed meeting of sports movements, governments, bookmakers and other international public organizations on Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they will attempt to thrash out ways to battle 'irregular and illegal sports betting'.
'China will be well represented at the meeting, with members of the Chinese Olympic Committee, including vice-president Wu Qi, sharing their knowledge of the betting market and laws regulating it in China,' Rogge said.
'We are looking forward to constructive discussions [with China] that we hope will eventually lead to a global definition and co-ordination of actions against irregular and illegal betting.'
China's co-operation will be seen as vital by the IOC. Lotteries are the only form of legal gambling on the mainland.
Mainland gamblers seeking the thrill of better returns turn instead to the black market and punt more than US$87 billion a year through offshore betting networks, according to estimates from China's Centre for Lottery Studies.
Mainland illegal gamblers along with those in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia make up the majority of the notorious East Asian illegal betting syndicates regularly accused of trying to rig the results of major sporting tournaments.