The newest scandal to rock the sport of sumo are the allegations of gambling and ties to the infamous Japanese mob, the yakuza.

The 25th of May, in Brussels marked the European Union’s preliminary steps in the process of creating a legal structure for gambling and betting.

FIFA has been forced to call in international crime-fighters Interpol to form a task-force to combat a wave of match-fixing and bribery that is sweeping through the game.

A spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, Emmanuelle Moreau, confirms what Play the Game wrote earlier today, that the IOC is setting up a new company, International Sports Monitoring, to watch over betting patterns during future Olympic Games.

Mark Davies, managing director of global betting giant Betfair, has called for a world anti-corruption agency for sport.

Last round in the wheel of fortune for Denmark, Finland and Hungary has been set off by The European Commission. In the spinning business of betting the EU Commission has issued Reasoned Opinions against the three EU member states to consider their gambling monopolies and make sure they are not contradicted by EU law.

The private gambling industry is applying increasing pressure on the Nordic gambling monopolies that generate billions of kroner for sport each year. Battle lines are also drawn at European and international level between private online gambling companies and the national gambling monopolies. However, there are great differences between how the different countries handle the challenge.

The Nordic countries find themselves at war about a billion-Euro market. Corporate international gaming and betting companies have started a tough competition with the public gaming monopolies which generate fortunes to sport and other good causes.