Hong Kong lawmakers have approved on Thursday a bill to legalise basketball betting in the city, with 77 votes in favour, two abstentions, and two votes against it.
The bill, which was scrutinised clause-by-clause in committee meetings, proposes to establish a regulatory regime for basketball betting that mirrors the existing one for football betting, the latter legalised in 2003.
The Betting Duty (Amendment) Bill 2025 grants the power to Hong Kong’s Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs to issue basketball betting operator licences with specified terms.
The document sets a betting duty of 50 percent of the net stake receipts, same as that for the football betting duty; and expands the functions of the city’s Betting and Lotteries Commission to cover matters relating to the regulation of basketball betting.
In Hong Kong, the most common types of lawful gambling are lotteries, horse racing, and football betting. They are run by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which is the only racing club and legal bookmaker in Hong Kong.
A previous Hong Kong government statement said that a licence for basketball betting would be issued to the HKJC “to avoid leading to competition among operators and stimulating betting demand”.
The Hong Kong authorities had said that the policy objective with regulating basketball betting was to “address the public demand for certain gambling activities, preventing people from turning to illegal operators”.
The government also said it would “impose licensing conditions so as to minimise the negative impact of gambling on the public, especially on young people”.
The HKJC estimated that market turnover for illegal basketball betting ranged between HKD70 billion (US$8.99 billion) and HKD90 billion in full-year 2024, with around 430,000 residents having wagered in the sport illegally, according to data included in a report of the Bills Committee.
