Probe on fake gamble scandal

FAKE claims 10 Collingwood players were involved in a betting scandal will be investigated by the AFL’s integrity department after an official Magpies request.

Leading media lawyer Justin Quill yesterday warned the fake texts were the worst kind of defamation because of the person’s “egotistical desire to see a lie go viral”.

But Quill said yesterday a screen shot of a text was much harder to trace back to its source than an email or tweet given the lack of a data trail.

Furious Collingwood president Eddie McGuire yesterday said the AFL’s integrity department was on the case given the serious nature of the claims which swept Melbourne on Thursday.

The league will investigate after being handed a copy of the fraudulent texts, with their integrity department to attempt to source their origin.

As Quill says, the allegations are especially damaging because of how damaging they are and because they mention specific players.

“This is clearly defamation and it's the worst kind of defamation where it appears someone has made this up for no good reason,” he said.

“Maybe it’s because of an egotistical desire to see a lie they made up go viral. It’s sick and it’s easily actionable but this is the critical thing, only if you can identify who was the person who started the lies.

“The person who does it knows it’s a lie and starts it and spreads it and clearly that person has done it maliciously.

“But if you trace it back it will look like a grapevine and the end of it goes through the whole vineyard.”

McGuire told Triple M he wasn’t prepared to simply ignore the false rumours about Collingwood players betting.

“What happens in these things now is everyone has a bit of a laugh ... the AFL integrity department, this is a very serious department of the AFL with the backing of Victoria Police, are investigating all this,” McGuire said.

“There’s defamatory comments there.”