Will Hong Kong Bow To The Pressure And Legalise Basketball Betting?

While it’s generally considered to be a US sport, basketball has long been popular the world over. In Hong Kong it’s been played for nearly seven decades, the first ever recorded game taking place in June 1956 when a team from the American Consulate took on the Police Force. The chosen venue was the Prince Edward Recreation Ground and the American team won a convincing victory.

Fast forward 69 years and the sport is thriving in HK. The national team is a regular qualifier in the FIBA Asia Cup with many players coming up through the HKBA’s elite development programme. As a sport it’s also thriving in schools and colleges where it forms a central part of the sporting curriculum. The Hong Kong Academy of Sports Science has even set up a research programme with the specific aim of analysing the physiological, psychological, and technical aspects of playing the sport.

Betting on the sport

As one might expect for such a high profile and popular sport, it also attracts a considerable amount of betting. However, this is currently an illegal activity. In research carried out by the body responsible for legal betting in the special administrative region, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, it was found that up to 430,000 of its inhabitants take part in illicit betting on basketball.

It’s estimated that they spend between HK$70 billion and HK$90 billion a year on the activity. Obviously, this is carried out with no official legal protection leading around 49% of participants to admit that if legal platforms were available they would consider switching to them. Currently adults are only permitted to bet on horse racing, soccer and the official Mark Six Lottery. Now there is a growing groundswell of opinion that basketball should also be included.

An economic necessity?

As well as to regulate the activity the government may have an even more pressing motivation to legalise basketball betting. It’s no secret that the economy has been struggling in recent years.

Related to this is the fact that the special administrative region faces a budget deficit this year of over HK$94 billion, double the amount predicted back in 2024. In figures prepared by PwC it estimated that there would be HK$639 billions in the fiscal budget at the end of March, enough for the next ten months of government expenditure, but no more.

An integral part of legalising basketball betting would be the tax revenue that it would raise. There would also very likely be licensing fees payable by any sportsbook operators wanting to offer their services to Hong Kong residents. Early calculations suggest that of the projected HK$52 billion that would be spent on basketball betting around HK$1.5 billion would be returned in the form of taxes. Perhaps not enough to make a serious dent in any budget deficit, but a useful contribution all the same.

Other countries’ examples

Looking to other countries where sports betting is popular, there may be many lessons to be learned for Hong Kong. In the US, which legalised sports betting in a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in 2018, its introduction has been a smooth one. Individual States have been made responsible for the precise regulation and have started to see the fiscal benefits.

North of the border in Canada the country has also been undergoing a gradual liberalisation of betting laws. As well as sports betting, legal gambling sites have also started to proliferate with Ontario leading the way in opening up the official structures for online gambling. Other provinces including Alberta are also well on their way to doing the same.

The next steps for Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government was quick to set up a public consultation on the proposed liberalisation of basketball betting. This was concluded in early May 2025 and there will follow a period of analysis of its findings.

While no official timetable has been released for the next steps, it’s thought that any legislation will be planned to coincide with the Legislative Council’s timetable for 2026/27. Given the example of football betting, this took fully three years to become law from its first proposal.

Alice Mak, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs outlined another reason for the proposed change to the law. She stated that without a regulated market illegal gambling would be set to grow, bringing with it the many financial and social problems some other countries have experienced in the past. She also stated that it could reduce crime as well as offering protection for consumer rights. So it remains to be seen how quickly the law can be changed to accommodate basketball betting. And, while it may not be quite soon enough to address the immediate budget shortfall, it should make a valuable contribution in years to come.