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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hak-kan and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, in the Legislative Council today (July 6):
Question:
According to the Annual Report of the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), the football betting turnover in the 2014-2015 financial year was as high as $78.249 billion (a nearly 26 per cent increase as compared with the preceding year) and accounted for 41.41 per cent of the total betting turnover (an increase of 5.64 percentage points as compared with the preceding year), showing the increasing prevalence of football betting. In addition, it has been reported that some individuals illegally accepted football bets on matches of this year's UEFA European Football Championship, with betting turnover of about $10 million. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of prosecution and conviction cases related to illegal football betting activities in the past five years, as well as the total betting turnovers involved; whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of the related law enforcement operations;
(2) whether the authorities will step up the regulation of the HKJC's conduct of football betting by adding provisions in the licence for football betting to restrict the bet types of football betting; if not, of the reasons for that, and whether there are other measures in place to impose regulation;
(3) as the findings of a survey showed that 42 per cent of the respondents who had ever placed bets on football matches indicated that they placed such bets for the first time at an age below 21, whether the authorities will consider afresh raising the legal gambling age to 21; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(4) whether it will comprehensively step up public education and publicity efforts to curb the prevalence of gambling; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Government adheres to the policy of "not encouraging gambling" on account of its social costs. Having said that, we understand that there is a public demand for gambling, and we therefore allow the provision of legal gambling in a limited and regulated manner as a means to address public needs, so as to steer the public away from illegal gambling. On another front, we strive to implement, mainly from the Ping Wo Fund, preventive and remedial measures by launching public education, and offering counselling and treatment services for problem or pathological gamblers to alleviate gambling-related problems.
My reply to the Hon Chan Hak-kan's question is as followsĄG
(1) In the past five years (i.e. 2011 to 2015), the Police successfully launched 140 raids against illegal bookmaking on football and a mix of betting products (including horse-racing, football and Mark Six), with a betting turnover of $992 million in total.
The Police have been tackling unlawful football betting activities on four fronts, namely, prevention, education, intelligence-gathering and enforcement, and shall adjust their operational deployment in the light of actual circumstances. Furthermore, the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau of the Police, in conjunction with various police districts, has kept a close watch on any illegal betting activities that may arise during the UEFA European Football Championship in June and July 2016 in a bid to conduct intelligence-led enforcement operations against such crimes.
(2) and (3) A licence for football betting is issued to the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) by the Secretary for Home Affairs in accordance with the Betting Duty Ordinance (Cap. 108), under which permission is given to the HKJC to accept fixed odds betting and pari-mutuel betting on results and progress of major professional football leagues, international football tournaments and international football matches.
The current licence sets out the approved categories of football matches and betting types, while there are no requirements on the number of matches and the types of results available for betting. Such a regulatory regime allows the licence operator (i.e. HKJC) the flexibility to make prompt adjustment in the light of the actual situation, in a bid to avoid local football fans turning to illegal betting outlets when the matches available for legal betting fall short of their demand. Such an approach is in line with the Government's on-going policy to regulate betting, i.e. providing legal betting outlets to steer the public away from illegal betting.
The Ping Wo Fund commissioned the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU) to conduct a survey entitled "the Study on Hong Kong People's Participation in Gambling Activities" in 2011, which included a focused study on the age group between 12 and 18. According to the results, 40 per cent of the respondents indicated that they had taken part in gambling activities, most of which were conducted in social context, such as poker and mahjong. The prevalent rates of "possible problem gamblers" and "possible pathological gamblers" were 1.4 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively. The Ping Wo Fund is now commissioning the HKPU to conduct another research study to get hold of the latest situation of participation of citizens in gambling, as a way to set out proper measures to alleviate the harmful consequences of gambling. The study will also look into people's participation in football betting, including the relevant statistics on youth participation. It is anticipated that the results will be available by the last quarter of this year. We shall consider the way forward upon review of the study results.
The current legal gambling age is 18, which is in line with the general acceptance of 18 as the age of adulthood. We are aware that there are some comments in the community that the legal gambling age should be raised from 18 to 21. Such a suggestion opens to a number of considerations, such as whether it can effectively tackle youth gambling problems or, in the contrary, result in persons between 18 and 21 resorting to illegal gambling due to a raise in legal gambling age.
(4) We attach great importance to the prevention and alleviation of problems that may arise from gambling. Set up by the Government in 2003, the Ping Wo Fund aims to finance preventive and remedial measures to address gambling-related problems, including research and studies into problems and issues relating to gambling; public education and other measures to prevent or alleviate problems relating to gambling; counselling, treatment and other remedial or support services for problem and pathological gamblers and those affected by them.
In terms of promotion and public education, the Ping Wo Fund has launched the Ping Wo Fund Sponsorship Scheme since 2009 and the Ping Wo Fund School Project Grants since 2010 as measures to finance non-governmental organisations and schools in anti-gambling promotion and education events. Financial support has been rendered to nearly 400 projects through the Scheme and the Project Grants.
We have also been, in collaboration with different stakeholders, organsing various educational activities so as to help the public avoid addiction to gambling. For instance in 2015, in collaboration with the Radio Television Hong Kong, we produced and broadcast a new series of TV docu-drama on the negative consequences of gambling addiction. A multi-media education programme targeting students was also rolled out to enhance their understanding of gambling-related problems. In the light of the UEFA European Football Championship being held this year, the Ping Wo Fund stepped up its efforts to promote the message of "Healthy Living. Kick Gambling!" to the public through a series of publicity campaigns, under which different thematic territory-wide and community activities have been held in Hong Kong, including family fun days, thematic road shows, football matches, campus movie screenings, etc.
Ends/Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Issued at HKT 12:09
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