The integrity unit of the World Lottery Association (WLA) has announced a new partnership with a European law enforcement agency.
The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement body, in The Hague, Netherlands. Under the terms of the agreement, GLMS and Europal have agreed that they will share data and information concerned sports competitions and any related ongoing organised crime investigations.
GLMS and Europol will also be working together to run a number of joint activities and to implement a range of relevant projects, particularly in the area of education.
Updating the financial markets, the President of GLMS, Ludovico Calvi, said that the organisation was pleased to be cementing an already-existing relationship with the enforcement agency, and that the partnership would enable both parties to strengthen their joint efforts.
Law enforcement
Europol is the main law enforcement agency for the European Union. Based in The Hague, its role is to support all 28 Member States of the EU in a number of areas, including the fight against terrorism, countering cybercrime and tackling all forms of organised crime.
Commenting on the new partnership, the Europol Deputy Executive Director of Operations, Wil van Gemert, said they were delighted to be working more closely with GLMS, and that their global links and local presence would help Europol to tackle the serious problems of match-fixing and other sport integrity issues, which are often associated with the activities of criminal gangs.
With organised crime infiltrating sport, the phenomenon of sport competition manipulations is, unfortunately, an active threat to EU citizens.”
