Hong Kong has paused plans to legalise basketball betting, citing concern that launching now could push more people toward illegal prediction market platforms.
Hong Kong has shelved plans to introduce legal basketball betting just seven months after the Legislative Council voted to permit it, with the government citing the rise of prediction markets as grounds for delay.
The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau announced the suspension on 13 April, with a bureau spokesman saying sports betting on prediction markets – platforms where users trade contracts on the outcomes of future events – is illegal in Hong Kong, but their rapid growth has created conditions the government says require further study before proceeding.
“If basketball betting is introduced under the prevailing circumstances, it could lead more people to pay attention to and participate in illegal bets in prediction markets,” the spokesperson said.
Home Affairs Secretary Alice Mak, speaking to RTHK, said legalising a new betting product risks directing public attention toward unregulated alternatives. “If we regulate sports betting now because it’s new, it will make such activities more appealing to the public.
“We are concerned that people will then become more interested in prediction markets, and some may even start gambling on them.”
The government pointed to the scale of the sector’s growth as a rationale for the betting pause. Global prediction market transaction volumes reached $64bn last year, a threefold increase on 2024, and are projected to grow a further fivefold by 2030, with 40% of that activity expected to be sports-related.
The bureau said it will also study the impact of prediction markets on other forms of gambling in the city, not just basketball betting.
What had Hong Kong proposed?
The suspension halts a process that had appeared close to completion. The Legislative Council passed amendments to the Betting Duty Ordinance to legalise basketball betting last year, with the Hong Kong Jockey Club widely expected to be named the city’s sole licensed operator.
The proposed duty structure for football betting: a 50% levy on net stake receipts.
Basketball would have represented an expansion of the Jockey Club’s remit. The club currently operates Hong Kong’s only legal horse racing and football betting services, and adding basketball would have brought the city’s regulated offering in line with a sport that draws a significant following across the region. That expansion is now on hold for an unspecified period.
The Jockey Club said it would stand down pending further instruction.
“The Jockey Club respects the government’s decision and will cooperate with its work,” a spokesperson said.
The bureau said it will conduct further analysis into how prediction markets operate and their potential impact on Hong Kong’s regulated gambling market, describing the work as necessary to protect public interest. No timeline has been given for when that analysis will conclude or when the basketball betting question might be revisited.
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