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Stanley Ho works to lure HK gamblers

Macau gambling mogul Stanley Ho is attempting to lure Hong Kong gamblers to his online casino with the promise of cash giveaways, ahead of new legislation that will make online betting illegal, a report said Sunday.

Ho's Caribbean-based Web site DrHo.com, which offers "two casinos for your playing pleasure" has sent e-mails to users of PCCW's Netvigator Internet service offering new punters US$50 (HK$390) to kick off their account.

A loophole in the government's Gambling Ordinance, first formulated in the 1970s when there was no cross-border gambling or Internet, means the giveaway is not illegal.

However, the law is expected to be amended within months to make it illegal to make online bets from Hong Kong or even for gambling Web sites to be promoted in the territory, the South China Morning Post reported.

The promotion comes as the Macau government contemplates bids to secure licenses to operate casinos when Ho's 40-year monopoly franchise -- Asia's answer to the US' gambling mecca of Las Vegas -- expires.

The government decided in September to end Ho's monopoly by the end of March and open up the gambling industry by offering three licences to global contenders.

However, the 78-year-old magnate and his firm Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM) are hotly tipped to secure one of the three licences up for grabs.

A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Carmen Lok, told the Post that the DrHo.com promotion "exploited the grey areas" in the law and illustrated that changes to the law were urgently needed.

"Failure to do so [change the law] means that the Hong Kong community remains vulnerable to unlimited, unregulated and uncontrolled gambling," she said.

Authorities have claimed that activities such as betting on football matches and Internet gambling deprive the government of revenue and also prevent charities from receiving donations from the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

The club runs the territory's two major legal forms of gambling -- horse racing and the mark six lottery. Gambling in licensed Mahjong parlours is also permitted.

It has long called for legal loopholes in Hong Kong's gambling laws to be closed to prevent billions of dollars going to illegal offshore bookmakers.

In the last racing season alone, illegal and offshore gambling in Hong Kong amounted to more than US$80 million, mainly from bets on overseas horse races and football matches.
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