Business News
Gamblers bet 7 per cent more in Hong Kong as economy booms
Sep 1, 2010, 6:03 GMT
Hong Kong - Hong Kong people gambled more than 15 billion US dollars on horse races, football matches and lottery tickets in the past year, the city's official bookmakers said Wednesday.
Punters in the gambling-mad city of 7 million staked 15.03 billion US dollars in the year to the end of June, 7.1 per cent more than in the previous 12 months, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced.
The boost in gambling revenue came as the city's economy rebounded strongly from the global economic slump with property and stock prices rising steeply.
Betting revenue before and after the end of the financial year at the end of June was also boosted by the football World Cup which drew a total of 570 million US dollars in bets, the club said.
Despite the rise in revenue, Hong Kong Jockey Club officials warned Hong Kong was losing an estimated 2.82 billion US dollars a year to gamblers travelling to casinos in neighboring Macau.
Casinos are illegal in Hong Kong where the only legal bets are on horse races, football matches placed through official Hong Kong Jockey Club outlets, as well as a weekly lottery it runs.
However, underground syndicates offering a broader range of tax-free odds are widespread, meaning billions of US dollars a year more is gambled illegally in Hong Kong.
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