Hong Kong’s finance chief is considering raising government revenues by legalising basketball betting as part of measures to tackle the city’s close-to-HK$100 billion (US$12.9 billion) fiscal deficit, the Post has learned.
Advertisement
Two days before Paul Chan Mo-po’s budget speech, an insider confirmed on Monday that authorities could allow the Hong Kong Jockey Club to expand its sports gambling options to cover basketball, which would increase government revenues from betting duties.
In a media interview last year, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the club’s chief executive, said there were 100,000 to 150,000 punters using illegal bookmarkers to bet on basketball.
He also said the club could bring up to 60 per cent of them into legal channels if the betting was legalised.
The money involved in illegal sports betting by Hongkongers reached about HK$350 billion in 2023, with basketball accounting for 15 per cent of the total, according to Engelbrecht-Bresges.
Advertisement
Legalising basketball gambling could potentially bring in HK$52.5 billion, nearly a third of the club’s total football betting turnover in 2023, he added.
发表回复