Secretary for Home & Youth Affairs Alice Mak affirmed today that the Government will continue to take a multi-pronged approach towards tackling illegal gambling.
Miss Mak was commenting ahead of a Legislative Council panel meeting tomorrow at which she will present the results of a public consultation on the formulation of a regulatory regime for betting on basketball and the steps the Government proposes to take next.
She told reporters that over 90% of the views gathered the consultation, conducted some months ago, support the formulation of a basketball gambling regime modelled on the current football gambling regime.
She also reiterated that the Government does not encourage any kind of gambling and has taken a multi-pronged approach to combating the issue of illegal gambling.
“The first and the most important one is law enforcement, so through law enforcement we will take serious actions against those illegal gambling organisations and people involved in illegal gambling (which) is in fact a criminal offense and can be subject to a penalty of $50,000 and also nine months in jail.
“The second one is public education; this is very important that we need to let Hong Kong people know the consequences of illegal gambling and we will encourage people to understand how to avoid illegal gambling and in fact gambling. We will take a series of measures and put in more efforts and resources in enhancing public education.
“Thirdly, for those who already have gambling problems, we will provide counselling services. Currently, we have four counselling centres carrying out these counselling services.
“The fourth and last one, we can see it as a last resort. When the illegal gambling problem is so serious, we need to channel the illegal gambling to a regulated gambling regime. With illegal basketball gambling, we are also taking these four approaches.”