{"id":777023347,"date":"2025-02-25T08:54:41","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777023347"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:28:23","slug":"hong-kong-considers-legalising-sports-betting-on-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-considers-legalising-sports-betting-on-basketball","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong considers legalising sports betting on basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The chairman of the Legislative Council&#8217;s Finance Committee has argued that legalising betting on basketball would boost revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Hong Kong.- The Hong Kong government is considering a proposal to legalise sports betting on basketball in a bid to generate more revenue. During discussions on the budget, <strong>Chan Chun-ying<\/strong>, chairman of the Legislative Council\u2019s Finance Committee, said now was a moment to consider projects that would normally cause controversy due to the budget deficit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chen Zhenying said many illegal betting operations already exist for basketball, including for the NBA in the United States and the CBA in China, and suggested that a ban is unrealistic. According to Sing Tao Daily, Chen Zhenying said that, by integrating basketball betting into regulated offerings provided by entities like the Hong Kong Jockey Club (KJC), the government could generate over NT$1bn (US$30.5m) in annual gambling tax revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"TVB News\uff5c24 February\uff5cSources: Government may legalise basketball betting\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wYOeS4a7BEo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: TVB News.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year,&nbsp;<strong>Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges<\/strong>, chief executive of the HKJC, said the club would be interested in&nbsp;<strong>incorporating NBA betting into its offerings<\/strong> if the government allowed it. He estimated that&nbsp;up 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<p>A report indicated that in 2023, approximately 560,000 people engaged in illegal gambling activities. That&#8217;s a five per cent increase compared to the previous year. The estimated losses attributed to illegal bookmakers reached HK$15bn (US$1.9bn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The HKJC has previously put forward&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hkjc-proposes-gambling-expansion-to-tackle-illegal-betting\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a proposal<\/a>&nbsp;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&nbsp;that an investment of HK$1.5bn (US$191.7m) to HK$2.5bn (US$319.6m)&nbsp;would be required in infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-football-chief-open-to-legalising-gambling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hong Kong football chief open to legalising gambling<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The chairman of the Legislative Council&#8217;s Finance Committee has argued that legalising betting on basketball would boost revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777023348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Hong Kong government is evaluating the legalisation of basketball betting to generate an estimated US$30.5 million in annual gambling tax revenue and mitigate a substantial illegal market valued at US$45 billion annually. The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has expressed readiness to integrate NBA betting, projecting a redirection of up to 60% of illegal bettors, contingent on a significant infrastructure investment estimated between US$191.7 million and US$319.6 million.","focusai_entities":"Chan Chun-ying, Chen Zhenying, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Legislative Council\u2019s Finance Committee, Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), NBA, CBA, Sing Tao Daily, TVB News","focusai_location":"Hong Kong, United States, China","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.92), operator_casino (0.95), affiliate_publisher (0.75), product_ux (0.88), tech_data (0.9), marketing_crm (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.92), investor_analyst (0.98), supplier_vendor (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Legislative Approval Timeline?","query":"What is the projected timeline for legislative approval and the HKJC's operational readiness to launch regulated basketball betting?"},{"label":"HKJC Investment Impact?","query":"How will the HKJC's estimated infrastructure investment of up to US$319.6 million impact its capital expenditure budget and long-term financial projections?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,24628,155],"tags":[23911,233],"class_list":["post-777023347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-sports-betting-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023347","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=777023347"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777023367,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777023347\/revisions\/777023367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777023348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777023347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777023347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777023347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}