|
Home>News Center>China | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Macao gamblers ready for HK horse racing bet
The Macao Jockey Club (MJC) brought in a record high daily gross revenue of 155 million patacas (US$19 million) from Sunday's first joint race with the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC). There were a total of 12 rounds of horse racing, including the first Macao-Hong Kong Trophy and the Macao Guineas. Jackpots on the Macao-Hong Kong Trophy, which is expected to be an annual event from this session, exceeded 13 million patacas (US$1.6 million). At the prize-awarding ceremony, Ronald Arculli, chairman of HKJC and Stanley Ho, chairman of MJC shook hands in a gesture of clinching a "good neighborhood agreement," which would enable Hong Kong and Macao horse-racing gamblers to take bets in each other's jockey clubs. Sources with MJC said that the deal may take effect in May after the computer operating network of the two jockey clubs hooks up. However, details of the cooperation intent will have to go through the governments of Hong Kong and Macao for approval. Ho said the cooperation agreement will be mutually beneficial. The two jockey clubs planned to join hands in signing deals with over a dozen countries and regions on combating illegal gambling in Hong Kong and Macao's horse racing, which is expected to start by the end of April. Disputes between the two clubs, which overlook each other some 60 kilometers across a narrow sea, reached its peak in 2002, when Hong Kong banned local residents from betting on Macao's races through telephone or Internet in a tightened crackdown on illegal gambling. The two sides have been engaged in negotiations to solve the disputes since last year. A high-level talk on cooperation between MJC and HKJC was held in September 2002, during which the possibility of a takeover formula was brought forward. The two sides failed to go into details due to HKJC's priority plan of opening soccer lottery in August 2003. The first Hong Kong-Macao Trophy was held in Hong Kong on Feb. 15 this year in an omen of cooperation. Taking into consideration of the disparity between the two clubs, Hong Kong racers gave away 17 points to Macao racers in the trophy races to ensure a fair game. Macao's racing horse "Crown's Gift" won both of the trophy races in Hong Kong and Macao. MJC took on a rare prosperous scene Sunday, when nearly 10,000 spectators crowded the stand. Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Edmund Ho Hau Wah attended the trophy' s prize-awarding ceremony. MJC, which went into red in 2002 with an accumulated loss amounting to some 350 million US dollars, said that it made a modest net profit of 5 million dollars last year, when its daily turnover averaged some 6.4 million dollars, as compared with HKJC' s 109 million dollars daily turnover. MJC opened Internet betting in Sept. last year, which proved to be successful. On the first day of its launch on Sept. 23, the daily jackpot hit 76 million patacas (US$9.5 million). MJC said that it has received an active registration of betters in the southeast Asian region, but declined to give the exact turnover from dealings via the Internet. The Macao SAR government granted a one-year sanction of exclusive Internet betting right to MJC in August 2003. The net betting business with a valid period expires on December 31, 2004, and is subjected to the regulation by the Macao Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau. Under the authorization, MJC allows all people above the age of 18 to open betting accounts on the companies' website, which are kept confidential by the company. MJC said that it will take some time for overseas betters to get used to the
dealing via the Internet, and they will soon enjoy the convenience of the
betting process. |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
