Illegal gambling is growing twice as fast as wagering and about $140 billion is laundered annually though illegal markets, local media reports.
Martin Purbrick, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s security and integrity chief said a task force would release detailed research into the extent of illegal betting within the next few weeks.
“Illegal betting is growing twice as fast as legal betting, so clearly there is an inflection point in the future where there will be a significant impact on the legal market,” the South China Morning Post cited Purbrick as telling a racing conference in Seoul.
“There is a huge problem of criminality using betting, racing and sports for profit. If we in racing don’t influence government to regulate it, to more effectively combat the problem, it could kill the sport,” he said, stressing in particular the criticality of integrity to customer confidence.”
The club turned over HK$115.8 billion (US$14.75 billion) on racing in the last financial year, up nearly 8 per cent on 2015-16.
This Dossier results from the “Life After POGOs” editorial project by Asia Gaming Brief which culminated with a pop-up digital forum on 9th December to discuss potentials ramifications in the industry.
Covid-19 forced the rapid and unexpected closure of venues across Australia, changing the operating environment with unprecedented speed and leaving managers scrambling to adapt...
Tomakomai Mayor Hirofumi Iwakura has again pressed the Hokkaido prefectural authorities led by Governor Naomichi Suzuki to rejoin the IR race in the current cycle, arguing that the nine-month delay in the national licensing timeline provides adequate opportunity to resolve environmental and other concerns.
As Japan sinks into a deeper crisis over the Covid-19 pandemic, it would be natural that it might be overlooked. Indeed, the sensitivity of Japanese policymakers to overseas developments is often tenuous at best. But for the future of Japanese IRs generally—and for Osaka most specifically—stakeholders should be quaking with alarm over the most recent headlines regarding MGM Resorts.
Over the years, many of the answers have been remarkably prescient in their forecasts for the near-term direction of Asia’s gaming industry. However, we can safely say that no one came anywhere close to guessing
what 2020 may have had in store.
While nowhere in the world has escaped the economic fallout from the Covid-19 crisis, Macau has been hit harder than most, with forecasts for gross domestic product to shrink more than 50 percent this year.
Before the Covid-19 crisis, tourism in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region was at a record high, on track to welcome 80 million visitors in 2019, generating some $90 billion in revenue.
