Kicking gambling out of soccer

With the 2022 World Cup underway in Qatar, places where you can "play ball" have appeared on the internet. This so-called play ball is actually online gambling, and it has many hooks, people can not only bet on a team winning or losing a match, but also the score, the number of red and yellow cards, and the number of corner kicks, and so on.

As the tournament has shown already, soccer is full of surprises. Thus betting on soccer matches is a losing proposition. Once someone gets a taste for it, it is very likely to lead to very painful consequences. There are not a few people who borrow money to gamble to "play ball", and it is not hard to imagine what will happen after they lose the bet.

The harm of online gambling is not limited to gambling itself. Most of the soccer gambling is done via smartphone apps, which might have other risks. For example, some apps may have backdoors to obtain users' personal information and property information. Some gambling platforms, even fraud websites with gambling cards, can be said to be "illegal in the name of illegal", so there is no way for users to pursue compensation.

Gambling is an insult to the game. In some lower-level games, there were even reports about soccer players themselves being involved and fixing matches.

In order to curb the gambling on soccer, it is necessary for the responsible departments to do their jobs by striking the gambling activities and the platforms. They need to find the clues of the gambles, make clear their technological paths, fill in loopholes if there are any, so as to strike the gambling at the root.

Before the World Cup opened, several soccer video platforms all announced they would prohibit gambling, which is a positive move for the soccer industry and the platforms themselves. But it seems the gambling has not disappeared yet, which means the platforms need to strengthen their efforts.