The results of a month-long public consultation in Hong Kong showed that over 90 percent of respondents support legalizing basketball betting in the city, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak Mei-kuen said Sunday.

Speaking to members of the media, Mak said she will attend the Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs, Culture and Sports meeting on Monday to report on the results of the public consultation and on the next step that the SAR government will take.   

“When the illegal gambling problem is so serious, we need to channel the illegal gambling to a regulated gambling regime,” Mak said.  

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“During the consultation process, 90 percent of the people who submitted their proposals, they supported the regulated basketball gambling regime, and this will be modelling on the current football gambling regime,” she added.

According to a paper that the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau submitted to the LegCo on Thursday, the SAR government received a total of 1,063 submissions, mainly thru e-mail, during the consultation on the proposed regulatory regime for basketball betting. 

They included 999 submissions (94.0 percent) that expressed support or positive views, 28 submissions (2.6 percent) that did not clearly indicate a stance, and 36 submissions (3.4 percent) that opposed the proposal.

When the consultation was launched in April, the bureau said members of the public had expressed concerns in recent years about the problem of illegal basketball betting in the SAR.

Based on the latest assessment of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the turnover of illegal basketball betting reached HK$70 billion to HK$90 billion in 2024.

“For the government, we don’t encourage any kind of gambling. When combating the illegal gambling problem, we have multipronged approach,” Mak said.

She said this included law enforcement against illegal gambling, public education on the dangers of gambling, counseling services for those addicted to gambling, and “as a last resort”, channeling illegal gambling to a regulated gambling regime.

“With illegal basketball gambling, we are also taking these four approaches,” Mak said.

ALSO READ: HK launches consultation on regulating basketball betting

The SAR currently allows only a limited number of authorized gambling outlets, including authorizing the HKJC to conduct horse race betting, Mark Six Lottery and football betting in accordance with the Betting Duty Ordinance.

To combat illegal betting activities effectively, the SAR government announced in the 2025-26 Budget that it will explore regulating basketball betting.

By amending the Betting Duty Ordinance, the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs will be granted the power to issue a license for basketball betting to the HKJC and to impose licensing conditions to minimize the negative impact of gambling on the public, especially on young people.

READ MORE: Multi-pronged approach needed to curb gambling

Mirroring the regulatory regime on football betting, major licensing conditions of the proposed regulation of basketball betting include prohibitions on taking bets from juveniles and on accepting credit betting.