Sports Alive : Aussie internet bookie under investigation

Wednesday,  November 30 ,2011 :  According to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday, the police have been asked to look into the affairs of the now insolvent and defunct Sports Alive online bookkeeping firm, which operated out of Melbourne.
 
Sports Alive was licensed by the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission, and the regulator requested the assistance of the police when it appeared that the company had operated for two years before its ultimate collapse, despite being technically insolvent.
 
ACT Gambling and Racing Commission chief executive Greg Jones told the Sydney Morning Herald: "They [the police] are considering the information we have given them to see if it is worthy, or if there is significant evidence for a criminal investigation,”
 
Sports Alive, which has been in the hands of the liquidators since late August, stands accused of not segregating player funds from operating capital.
 
Players are among the creditors that are owed a total of A$ 13million, with many unlikely to see satisfaction, the newspaper reports.
 
Also impacted is Tote Tasmania, which owns a 25 percent stake in Sports Alive, for which it paid some A$5 million that it paid an estimated $5 million.
 
The SMH comments: "It could have been worse as the Tote’s annual report of 2009/10 mentioned they were considering taking a “controlling interest.” That will come under a parliamentary committee investigation into the state-owned business that was called after it was revealed the Tote had paid the money whilst the firm was insolvent."