Hong Kong’s finance chief is considering raising government revenues by legalising basketball betting as part of measures to tackle the city’s nearly HK$100 billion (US$12.9 billion) fiscal deficit, the Post has learned.

Two days before Paul Chan Mo-po’s budget speech, an insider confirmed on Monday that authorities could allow the Hong Kong Jockey Club to expand its sports gambling options to cover basketball, which would increase government revenues from betting duties.

In a media interview last year, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the club’s chief executive, said 100,000 to 150,000 punters were using illegal bookmakers to bet on basketball. He also said the club could bring up to 60 per cent of them into legal channels if the betting was legalised.

The money involved in illegal sports betting by Hongkongers reached about HK$350 billion in 2023, with basketball accounting for 15 per cent of the total, Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

Legalising basketball gambling could potentially bring in HK$52.5 billion, nearly a third of the club’s total football betting turnover in 2023, he added.

Currently, a 50 per cent duty is charged on net receipts derived from authorised betting on football matches.