 Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter! |
Gaming News
Punters bet 15 million dollars Less at Hong Kong's New Year Races29 January 2001Hong Kong – Jan. 29, 2001 –As reported by the Deutche Press: ``Punters staked 15 million U.S. dollars less at the Chinese New Year race day in Hong Kong than they did a year ago in a slump race organisers blame on illegal gambling and Internet betting, it was reported Saturday. ``Takings at the Friday's meeting in Shatin - one of the biggest in the Hong Kong sporting calendar - were 166 million dollars compared to 181 million last year, the South China Morning Post reported. ``Organisers blamed the 8.5 per cent year-on-year fall in takings on the growing number of punters placing bets on Internet sites and the increase in illegal soccer betting syndicates in Hong Kong. ``The only legal form of betting in gambling-mad Hong Kong is on horse races, through the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and on a government- run weekly lottery. ``…Jockey Club chairman Lawrence Wong was quoted by the Post saying: `Hong Kong cannot afford to be laid back about the threat to revenue from illegal betting, because if the money is not raised from horse racing, it will have to be raised from elsewhere." ``Wong said he believed illegal bookmakers were taking between 5 and 6.5 billion U.S. dollars a year at `a conservative estimate'. In the 12 months to June last year, the Jockey Club paid 1.45 billion U.S. dollars to the Hong Kong government in taxes..." |