{"id":777022831,"date":"2025-02-12T10:04:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T13:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777022831"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:53:13","slug":"hong-kong-considers-legalisation-of-sports-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-considers-legalisation-of-sports-betting","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong considers legalisation of sports betting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Heung Yee Kuk has suggested legalising betting on basketball, snooker and tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong.- <\/strong>The statutory advisory body Heung Yee Kuk (HYK)<\/strong> has recommended legalising sports betting in Hong Kong on basketball, snooker and tennis. The proposal forms part of 19 recommendations submitted to financial secretary\u00a0Paul Chan Mo-po<\/strong>\u00a0ahead of the upcoming budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to local media, HYK’s chairman, Kenneth Lau Ip-keung<\/strong>, has proposed the establishment of a government-owned sports betting and investment company and public bidding for the franchise operation. Lau Ip-keung said this could generate stable betting tax revenues of several billion Hong Kong dollars each year. Betting would be allowed on international competitions like the National Basketball Association (NBA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges<\/strong>, chief executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), said the club would be interested in\u00a0incorporating NBA betting into its offerings<\/strong>\u00a0if the government allowed it. He estimated that\u00a0up to 60 per cent of the approximately 150,000 people engaging in illegal basketball betting could be redirected towards legal avenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HKJC has previously put forward\u00a0a proposal<\/a> for an expansion of its betting operations. Engelbrecht-Bresges said illegal sports betting in Hong Kong, including horse racing, football, basketball, tennis and esports, is worth approximately HK$350bn (US$45bn) a year, with horse racing and football representing 75 per cent and basketball 15 per cent. However, Engelbrecht-Bresges estimated\u00a0that an investment of HK$1.5bn (US$191.7m) to HK$2.5bn (US$319.6m)\u00a0would be required in infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n

See also:<\/span>\n
\n

See also:<\/span> Hong Kong football chief open to legalising gambling<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heung Yee Kuk has suggested legalising betting on basketball, snooker and tennis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":22668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Heung Yee Kuk (HYK) has proposed legalising sports betting on basketball, snooker, and tennis in Hong Kong, suggesting a government-owned betting entity and public franchise bidding to generate significant tax revenues. This initiative aims to redirect a substantial portion of the estimated HK$350bn annual illegal betting market into regulated channels, with the Hong Kong Jockey Club expressing interest and noting substantial infrastructure investment requirements.","focusai_entities":"Heung Yee Kuk, Kenneth Lau Ip-keung, Paul Chan Mo-po, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Hong Kong Jockey Club, National Basketball Association","focusai_location":"Hong Kong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.8), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.8), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (1.0), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Framework Details","query":"What specific B2B\/B2C licensing models and governance frameworks are being considered for the proposed government-owned sports betting entity and its franchise operations in Hong Kong?"},{"label":"Market Impact Assessment","query":"How would the proposed legalization of basketball, snooker, and tennis betting impact the Hong Kong Jockey Club's existing GGR and NGR, and what is the projected timeline for infrastructure investment and market launch?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,154],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-777022831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-legislation-news","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777022831"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777022842,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777022831\/revisions\/777022842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777022831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777022831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777022831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}