Hong Kong authorities will look into the possibility of relaxing the age restriction to allow teenagers under 18 to attend horse racing events, amid other moves to encourage tourism, the city’s culture chief has said.

“In terms of horse racing, not many other regions have been able to reach the scale that we have attained. We also have many international races every year … which can attract many horses, horse owners, and those who love this sport from overseas,” he said in a radio interview.

“We must fully utilise this unique feature. How can we achieve that? We have to strike a balance between many different factors, such as whether [current] age restrictions are necessary. We have to consider it in detail.”

The club said it supported the move to lower the age limit to take horse racing tourism forward, adding that it had stringent underage-access controls across all betting channels.

“The real threat to Hong Kong comes from illegal bookmakers. They do not impose any age restrictions on gamblers, posing a serious threat to responsible gambling,” it said on Monday night.