{"id":777031533,"date":"2025-09-11T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777031533"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:17:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:17:05","slug":"hong-kong-passes-basketball-betting-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/hong-kong-passes-basketball-betting-bill","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong passes basketball betting bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The bill will the HKJC to offer basketball betting in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong.- The Legislative Council has passed a bill that legalises basketball betting in Hong Kong<\/a>. Lawmakers today (September 11) approved the proposal by 77 votes to two, with two abstentions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Betting Duty (Amendment) Bill 2025<\/a> authorises the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs to issue licences for basketball betting. The Hong Kong Jockey Club<\/strong> will be the sole licensee, and it will operate under conditions similar to those governing horse racing and football betting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document proposes a 50 per cent tax on net profits<\/strong> from basketball betting in line with the existing model for football betting. The government expects the offering to be launched in September 2026<\/strong>, in line with the start of the NBA pre-season. System development is already underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak<\/strong> said that legalising basketball betting would channel money away from illegal gambling sites to regulated platforms. \u201cWe will not stop here. To combat illegal gambling, we will continue educational and promotional efforts, as well as conduct tough enforcement actions,\u201d she told reporters after the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hong Kong Jockey Club estimates that, once the market matures, annual turnover from authorised basketball betting could reach HK$28bn (US$3.57bn)<\/strong>, generating around HK$1.5bn (US$191m) in tax each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey conducted by the government found that 94 per cent of respondents were in favour of legalising betting on basketball while only 3.4 per cent were opposed. The survey involved 1,063 participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Hong Kong says basketball betting bill is about more than revenue<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The bill will the HKJC to offer basketball betting in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":777031536,"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 Legislative Council has passed the Betting Duty (Amendment) Bill 2025, legalizing basketball betting with the Hong Kong Jockey Club designated as the sole licensee. This regulatory expansion, expected to launch by September 2026, aims to channel significant turnover from illegal gambling into a regulated framework, projecting HK$28bn in annual turnover and HK$1.5bn in tax revenue. The new framework includes a 50% tax on net profits, mirroring existing football betting regulations.","focusai_entities":"Hong Kong Jockey Club, Legislative Council, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Alice Mak","focusai_location":"Hong Kong","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), product_ux (0.75), tech_data (0.85), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.75), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"HKJC Revenue Impact","query":"What is the projected incremental GGR and NGR contribution from regulated basketball betting to the Hong Kong Jockey Club's financial performance, considering the 50% net profit tax and estimated HK$28bn annual turnover?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How will the governance framework and regulatory compliance requirements for basketball betting, particularly regarding responsible gambling and advertising, align with or diverge from existing horse racing and football betting models in Hong Kong?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338,24628,154,158],"tags":[1619,233],"class_list":["post-777031533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","tag-hong-kong","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031533","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\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777031533"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777031543,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777031533\/revisions\/777031543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777031536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777031533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777031533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777031533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}