Tipping Off
Many Hongkongers will have been very surprised last week at the news the government was postponing introduction of basketball betting. After all it was only a few months ago the bill, introduced by the administration, had been enacted by the legislative council. So clearly it was a matter that fell within our high degree of autonomy. And the Jockey Club was known to be hard at work preparing for implementation.
But listeners to RTHK’s Backchat programme in early February may have come away with an inkling all might not be well. Experts on the show had explained how the rapid growth of prediction market platforms in the United States had overlapped with gambling operations, particularly in the area of sports betting. Whereas the latter were regulated, as indeed they are in Hong Kong where the Jockey Club has a monopoly, the prediction platforms operate in a grey area.
Until we work out how to address this new threat to clean sport, then it is probably best to pause for breath. Because the real problem here is not so much gambling per se, but rather corruption which pervades all too many sports. Unregulated betting can make available huge sums sufficient to tempt all but the most upright citizen. Once corruption takes hold, the whole merit of the sport itself is undermined.
Headlines from around the world show the curse of corruption has plagued all too many sports, football, basketball, cricket have all come under scrutiny recently. And invariably behind the scenes has been a bookmaker able to find someone on the pitch or on the court prepared to dishonour his profession for a price.
Even our own horseracing, in whose integrity we now take so much pride, was not always so pristine. I remember in pre-ICAC days there was considerable speculation that the outcome of certain races was fixed. Nowadays punters generally have more confidence as the stewards are on the alert for horses not allowed to run their best race. Appropriate disciplinary action can then be taken.
The cricketing world has been shaken by evidence of corruption involving players from South Africa and India, including some of the top names in the sport, even captains of their respective national squads. The misbehaviour includes in-match bets and similar exotic manipulation which implies a high degree of co-ordination and conspiracy.
Closer to home, the most high profile case in football involves the coach of the Chinese national team Li Tie, now serving a 20-year sentence for corruption. As a player, Li reached the pinnacles of the sport, turning out for Everton in the English premiership and representing his country in the 2002 World Cup. In purely sporting terms, Li achieved everything in life an individual might have wished for, but in the end it was not enough and he sacrificed his reputation.
Nor is the problem limited to adults at the top end of the game. Earlier this year a match-fixing scandal came to light involved two teams of Under-10 players. A total of six own goals were recorded in the 3-3 result as both teams struggled not to win so as to facilitate an easier path in the next round. Both sides were later disqualified from the tournament and four adults were disciplined. This was not the first example of misbehaviour involving youth players. An earlier case in 2022 was the final of the Guangdong Provincial Games under-15 match.
There have been some high profile cases in basketball also. According to the BBC, prosecutors have charged 26 persons in the United States with corruption over a scheme aiming to enrich sports gamblers. Altogether 39 players in 17 NCAA teams were involved. A separate case running from 2022-25 linked the sport to the New York mafia. On the mainland there have been mysterious reports of identity theft involving an over-age player.
The argument against allowing any gambling on sports events, apart from the moral one, is that it provides scope for corruption which undermines the integrity of the sport itself.
The argument for legalised gambling, simply put, is that if people are disposed to gamble anyway then it is better it be with a reputable organisation in a controlled way with the community collecting some of the benefit, rather than leave the field to illegal bookmakers who keep all the profits for themselves.
That is why Hong Kong has for many years tolerated gambling on horse races, a tolerance extended some years ago to football matches and more recently intended to be further extended to basketball. Proper regulation increases transparency and, at least in theory, makes it easier for governing bodies and law enforcement agencies to spot suspicious behaviour by gamblers such as unusually large bets or last-minute wagers etc.
It is by no means clear that the efficacy of these palliatives still applies in the case of prediction platforms. For one thing they are not regulated so are not obliged to operate in a transparent way. . Moreover, they are free to accept wagers and pay out winnings, in cryptocurrency which is a further barrier to detection. And finally they can operate overseas beyond the reach of local regulators or law enforcement agencies.
Whether it is practicable to overcome these weaknesses, for example by requiring all transactions to be in fiat currencies via registered financial institutions, is questionable. It will certainly take time. to work out. Having regard to all the circumstances I think it in the public interest to take that time before opening the floodgates.