The Hong Kong government may make basketball betting legal in an effort to raise tax revenue, the South China Morning Post reported.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan is considering expanding sports gambling from horse racing and football to increase betting duty income, the newspaper said Monday, citing an unnamed insider.
Chan is set to deliver his annual budget on Wednesday. He’s expected to strike a balance between boosting sluggish econmic growth and cutting spending to narrow a fiscal deficit just under HK$100 billion ($17.18 billion).
The coming budget “aims to maintain and improve people’s livelihood services while strictly controlling public expenditure; appropriately raising revenue while taking into account Hong Kong’s competitiveness”, Chan said in his blog over the weekend.
Authorities currently charge as much as 75% duty on the net proceeds from betting on horse races and 50% for football matches. The sports each generated nearly HK$13 billion in tax income last year, according to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the city’s only gambling operator.
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of HKJC, has advocated for legalising basketball betting. Such a move could potentially generate a turnover of HK$52.5 billion, he told the Standard newspaper last year.
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In comparison, football betting revenue totalled HK$160 billion in 2024.
