Sydney, July 26: A popular saying in gambling-mad Australia boasts that two drinkers in a pub would bet on two flies crawling up a wall.The adage has been taken to new heights by an announcement this month by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) that it would allow its athletes to bet on themselves or rivals at the Sydney Games in September.Critics say the decision opens the way for what is regarded as the most idealistic of sporting events to become embroiled in gambling scandals that have swept through the world of cricket, horse racing and football.Supporters say Olympic athletes put a gold medal above throwing a race simply for money and it would be impossible to enforce a ban on betting.AOC president John Coates said that although he believed betting was ``contrary to the Olympic ideals'' to suggest an athlete would purposely lose a gold medal was inconceivable.``It (betting) also is an added pressure on the athlete they certainly don't need at Games time,'' Coates said.``But our Olympians are not contracted to the AOC as employees as in the professional sports. We do not pay them a fee for service.Coates also argued that a gold medal was potentially worth millions of dollars in endorsements, which would outweigh the lure of winning a few thousand dollars from a bookmaker.Dave Flaskas, manager of the Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who is regarded as the host nation's hot favourite to win up to three gold medals, backed Coates's decision as realistic, even if it took away from the Olympic ideals. ``If two Australians are in the final and half the team are betting on different individuals, I don't think the Olympics needs it and it takes away from the team concept,'' Flaskas said.Flaskas said that even if the AOC banned athletes betting in their own events a competitor could easily get a friend to do so. ``It's impossible to police so I think John Coates has made the right decision,'' Flaskas said.Just how deeply gambling goes in the Australian soul was articulated last December by Prime Minister John Howard, ironically while announcing a review of Internet gambling.``Gambling is of course part and parcel of the Australian way of life,'' Howard said.While not denouncing gambling in general, he continued, ``problem gambling has become a major social concern.''A report released by Howard said Australia had 290,000 problem gamblers in a population of 19 million.Those 290,000 lost A $ 3.5 billion (US $ 2.1 billion) a year and represented one third of gamblers in Australia.They lost an average of $ 7,800 a year, compared with less than $ 384 a year for recreational gamblers.Nothing sums up Australians' love of a gamble more than the nation's top horse race.The Melbourne Cup, worth $ 1.06 million to the winner, was first raced in 1861 and has since unfailingly stopped the nation on the first Tuesday of each November.Workers and schools even primary schools all around the country pause to watch the race on television or listen to it on the radio. Members of the federal Parliament join in the flutter. The sports betting agency Centrebet, based in Alice Springs in central Australia, expects to hold $ 29.5 million of the estimated $ 41.3 million bet with Australian bookmakers on the Olympics.Centrebet sports betting manager Gerard Daffy said most of the money would come from overseas punters. He said he didn't think more than one per cent of Australian athletes would be interested in betting on the Games.Even so, Daffy admitted to being shocked by the possibility of Australian Olympians placing a bet on themselves or a rival.``I would have thought that the AOC to allow their own athletes to bet is a bit strange,'' Daffy said.
