Sports competitions were created with the aim of contributing to the healthy education of younger generations, instilling in all generations the spirit of fair competition, guaranteeing equality for all and eliminating any form of corruption that could harm values of sport.
Today, in Morocco, as in several other countries around the world, we face a growing threat: a scourge which has transformed into a real cancer, gnawing away at the body of sport, targeting sportsmanship and clean play. , whatever the type of competition. This cancer of illegal sports betting has unfortunately penetrated our country, Morocco, and found a place outside the legal framework.
A cancer that takes several forms, the most notable of which is the 1XBet application, which exploits the digital space to target the entire Moroccan society. This app allows minors and other vulnerable groups to participate in sports betting illegally, against current laws around the world.
It is important to emphasize that these illegal applications threaten not only Moroccan sport, but also Moroccan society and the sovereignty of the State over a sector that several countries, including Morocco, agree to monopolize so that it does not is not used for criminal or fraudulent purposes.
These applications today target Moroccan children, transforming them into easy prey in a digital space that is difficult to control, with often opaque and criminal motivations behind this spread of the cancer of illegal betting.
We must also emphasize that these applications harm the Moroccan economy and its financial sovereignty, because their activities are not subject to any regulation, pay no taxes and make no contribution to investment in sport. On the contrary, they deplete Morocco’s foreign currency reserves, especially since illegal transactions carried out by Moroccans on these betting platforms occupy second place in the world, behind Argentina.
It should also be noted that illegal betting offers facilitate the involvement of players, club officials and referees in manipulating the results of sports competitions, particularly in football.
In light of the above, it is essential to recall that Morocco was one of the first countries in Africa and the region to ratify its membership in the community of “Magglingen”, which met in Morocco on Tuesday, November 7 in Rabat, as part of a conference on the theme “Protecting the integrity of sport by fighting against illegal betting”.
This conference was held on the sidelines of the fifth meeting of the Copenhagen group, organized in Rabat on November 8 and 9, 2023, as well as the consultative meeting of the monitoring committee of the Macolin Convention.
This convention, which entered into force on September 1, 2019, mainly aims to combat the two greatest threats to sport and its integrity: doping and illegal betting.
As a reminder, it was ratified by France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of Moldova, Switzerland and Ukraine, and signed by 33 European countries, as well as by Australia and Morocco.
This call launched by the Moroccan Sports Press Association coincides with the holding of a new session of the work of the Copenhagen group, in the Portuguese city of Porto, and in connection with the adoption of the Macolin Convention. The Kingdom of Morocco will participate with a high-level delegation.
This is why we take this opportunity to call on stakeholders to accelerate the process of ratification and implementation of the Magglingen Convention.
We also ask all actors involved in the fight against the issues covered by this convention to commit seriously and responsibly to achieving its objectives.
We also reaffirm the leading role of the Kingdom of Morocco in this area, as the only African country having chosen to engage in the path of protecting sporting practices and protecting societies against the exploitation of competitions for criminal purposes.
The AMPS, as a player in the sports field, warns that the activity of illegal sports betting has transformed from a scourge into a cancer gnawing away at societies. This phenomenon even serves as a cover for criminal practices, going as far as the sexual exploitation of minors, as was revealed in the “Beirut barber” affair in Lebanon, and the involvement of drug trafficking networks. organs, as evidenced by numerous investigations carried out by our fellow journalists in Egypt. These investigations revealed alarming cases of suicides linked to illegal betting applications, most of the victims of which are minors and young people, which pushed the Egyptian state to ban these applications and criminalize their use.
