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Uncontrollable
Illegal Gambling?
Illegal offshore or interest gambling and
soccer betting have, in recent years, become issues of great concern to the
Hong Kong Government (“HKSAR”), the Hong Kong Jockey Club (“HKJC”), the pressure
groups (“PG”) and the general public, as HKJC has estimated that it has lost,
and will continue to lose, about HK$50 billion a year to high-tech and
illegal bookmakers. This is, in fact, a very serious problem and can affect
the future prosperity of Hong Kong, as HKJC, the largest single source of tax
revenue, contributed about HK$12 billion (or about 11.3% of HKSAR’s recurrent
tax revenue) to HKSAR coffers last year. The current betting tax is 14% and
the betting duty represents about 4.5% of HKSAR’s total revenue. Unlike in many advanced and democratic
Countries, gambling has always been a controversial issue in Hong Kong. While
many people regard gambling as a socializing or pastime activity, some people
may gamble all their moneys away, as one can see from newspapers from time to
time tragedies of individuals and families resulting from over-indulgence in
betting. As such, HKSAR has to balance the needs of the gambling public
against the views of those who vigorously oppose any kind of betting; and of
various sectors of the community, such as the PG, the teachers’ and social
workers’ unions who have recently voiced strong opposition to legalizing
football betting and have accused HKSAR short-sighted and unwise. Is it
really so? As we all know, HKJC, which is the biggest
charity donor and is also one of HKSAR’s largest tax payers, has made great
contributions to higher education (donated more than HK$5.1 billion over the
past 50 years, in addition to another HK$4 billion to eight UGC-funded institutions
and The Open University), in addition to various charitable and community
activities in the fields of sports, recreation and culture, medicine and
health vocational training and social services. HKJC also donates part of its
revenue to its Charities Trust which in turn gives a donation of around HK$1
billion every year to subsidize charitable organizations and community
projects, for which over 75% of our population are benefited one way or the
other. At the moment, there are two legal gambling outlets in Hong Kong, i.e.
horse racing organized by HKJC and the mark six lottery conducted by the Hong
Kong Lotteries Board, both of them are non-profit making organizations.
Illegal gambling activities operating in Hong Kong are all run by
profit-making commercial establishments which do not pay any betting duty and
do not bear the above-mentioned social responsibilities. If the revenue from
betting is reduced as a result of illegal gambling, the public coffers and
the community as a whole will no doubt suffer. Do we really want to see this
happen? The protest by the students in Central
recently, which was organized by the Teachers’ Union, against HKSAR’s hint on
legalizing football betting is understandable, but if one has to make a
decision on the issue, having regard to the loss of revenue, the difficulty
or impossibility to curb illegal football gambling, the social
responsibilities, the freedom of choice to gamble (unlike smoking, gambling
by itself does not affect other people’s rights) and the fact that betting on
one of the teams to win adds excitement to the game etc., one would agree to
legalize soccer betting in Hong Kong. As HKJC has all necessary facilities
and has been World-recognized as one of the best gambling and charitable
organizations, HKJC is therefore an ideal establishment for handling soccer
betting, so that HKSAR can see more money rolling back into the public
coffers in the near future. The Gambling Ordinance (“GO”) has now been
in existence for over 24 years and is incapable of preventing or deterring
illegal offshore or internet gambling activities in Hong Kong. Indeed, as
there are too many loopholes under our existing laws, illegal offshore or
internet gambling is almost uncontrollable by HKSAR at the moment. It is,
therefore, necessary to amend GO and other relevant legislation as quickly as
possible, in order to combat illegal offshore or internet betting activities
in Hong Kong. If one looks at our history, one will notice that GO was
enacted in 1977 to legalize, inter alia, “Tse Fa (字花), Hung Piu (紅票) and Po Pui (鋪票), as at the time,
“Tse Fa” was so common that the then Government was simply unable to stop
various illegal bookmakings which existed in almost every street corner.
Unless positive and speedy action is taken by HKSAR, history may re-occur not
on “Tse Fa”” but on football betting. Should we do something about it now,
before it is too late? All in all, one must now seriously
consider, under the current depressive economy, to legalize soccer betting
and to amend GO and other relevant ordinances in order to stop, once and for
all, illegal offshore or internet gambling activities in Hong Kong, so that
HKSAR will have more money to spend on the needy people or on the community
as a whole. George
YC Mok Senior
Partner George
YC Mok & Co Copyright © GYC Mok 2000
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