Saturday, March 03, 2007

"The AFL has vowed to do 'everything in its power' to detect and punish
players who gamble on football matches and warned that any future breaches
of its anti-gambling rules will trigger automatic suspension. ".Confronted
with the first examples of players who had flouted the AFL's anti-gambling
code framed after the Shane Warne-Mark Waugh bookie scandal, the league
resisted the temptation to suspend the players, settling for mandatory
counselling sessions and a sliding scale of financial penalties according to
the size and number of bets placed, and earnings of the players. "The most
severe penalty was handed to Adelaide midfielder Simon Goodwin, who was
discovered by UK agency Betfair to have placed four bets connected to
football games totally $16,024.58. One of those bets was pound stg. 2000
(about $4600) on the West Coast Eagles to win last year's grand final.
"Goodwin was fined $40,000, $20,000, of which was suspended. ".Next in line
was Melbourne's Daniel Ward, another problem gambler who placed 18
multi-bets totalling $3705 which all involved a football match. ".Ward was
fined $5000, with a further $5000 suspended and ordered to attend
counselling 'for as long as deemed appropriate by the counsellor and the
player in consultation with the Melbourne Football Club and the AFL'.