The International Olympic Committee has urged governments around the world to tighten gambling legislation and force bookmakers to pay a proportion of their revenues to sports bodies.
Ahead of an anti-corruption summit on Tuesday, the president of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, called for urgent measures and the sports minister, Hugh Robertson, said Britain was prepared to lead the way in co-ordinating international action on illegal gambling and match fixing.
More controversially, Rogge also called on governments to legislate to ensure that a proportion of betting revenues flowed back into sport, partly to help fund the fight against match fixing.
"Specifically we are in favour of a system where betting operators have to be licensed by the government," said Rogge, adding this would help monitor irregular betting patterns and also the companies' finances.
"Sports organisers, national federations and international federations would have a fair return for all their efforts for organising the sport. They should be recognised with a return from financial income."
The debate around a so-called "betting right", which would be bitterly resisted by bookmakers, is likely to intensify in the UK later this year after the government resolved to come up with an alternative to the horse racing Levy.
The legal betting industry argues that it already contributes substantially to sport in the form of marketing spend and broadcasting fees and that the main driver of match fixing is the vast unlicensed market in Asia.
well fuck, probably wouldn't be good...but what the fuck