Greed, far from being good, can be an existential threat for sport

OK, the film character Gordon Gekko was not talking about sport – he was goading shareholders of one of his asset-stripping takeover targets in the killer scene in that seminal 1980s movie Wall Street.

But his central theme strikes at the heart of the human condition: how self interest and a desire to cheat if necessary to get the desired outcome can drive behaviour in even the most upstanding of characters.

It's true that many people are driven by high ethical principals, great moral codes or, in the case of the rest of us, rather more prosaically by a plain sense of common decency.

For decades Australia's social system was predicated upon the principle of ''a fair go mate''.

A culture where Jack had the potential to be as good as his master, where everyone had, if not an equal chance, then at least the opportunity to do as well as the next man or woman.

But throughout the past few decades that notion seems to have fallen by the wayside.

If not lost completely, it has been diluted considerably.

Get away with what you can, make what you can, grab it while you can seem to be the watchword nowadays.

We only have to look to our leaders in Canberra, with their snouts in the trough growing fat upon the public purse, to realise the extent of cultural change – as the almost daily revelations of rorting politicians illustrate.

The business world is no different.

Fat-cat directors jumping absurdly low performance hurdles to justify enormous bonuses has been the way of the corporate world for so long that people's eyes now just glaze over when they hear of the latest obscene salary or mealy mouthed justification for tax dodging or similar fiscal chicanery.

Sport is part of the world, and therefore cannot help but be affected by it.

At its best sport should be ennobling. It should be about competition, pure and simple, with anyone who wants to get involved able to find their right level and test themselves against their peers.

It should be about training, discipline, commitment, skill, effort, mental strength, physical courage and toughness, athleticism and determination.

In the non professional leagues it mainly still is.

But just as those in the upper echelons of society appear to have the biggest culture of entitlement and look to feather their own nest the most, it is often those at the top of the sporting tree who sully the concept of their game or activity the most.

Yes, the rewards are enormous these days, with top players in major sports earning more in a few months than the average man or woman might make in a lifetime.

But for those seeking to stay at the top, or break into the upper echelons, the temptation to cheat or use their prowess to rig results and make money by betting can prove too much.

The latest example of cheating that has shocked the sporting world has come in the racing industry – a sphere in which ''colourful'' identities, wide boys, chancers and dodgy characters have historically been key actors in the bohemian cast of that soap opera, life on the turf. Not for nothing did Damon Runyon have characters called Hot Horse Herbie and Harry The Horse in his tales of raffish New York gangster life.

The Aquanita investigation  has destroyed reputations and also delivered a body blow to the image of racing, which depends so much on the gambling dollar for its revenue and its raison d'etre.

This is a critical point for the sport because if punters believe that the cards are stacked too much in favour of insiders at their expense and stop betting in the amounts they do, then the whole finances of the sport would be hit.

Ditto owners and horse breeders, those who shell out huge sums to buy and breed the thousands of horses that run every year for a show that almost never stops.

Other sports have had their gambling problems.

Cricket has had a slew of high-profile players implicated and disciplined for their involvement with bookies and match fixing, while various soccer betting scandals have blown up on a regular basis.

The AFL has had to deal with some high-profile players whose lives have been blighted by a predilection for the punt, while cycling has had to contend with massive reputational damage from rorting and cheating by its leading protagonists craving success and the fiscal rewards that come with it.

But people still watch cricket for the sport itself. Soccer, footy and cycling also.

Racing has to be seen to be as clean as possible, for if the field isn't as level as it can be, what's the point.

That's one case where greed, clearly, is not good ... in fact it could be an existential threat.