/ Editor / 21 January 2008 / Leave a comment

RACING in Hong Kong or gaming in Macau?

Over the newswires the Casino Anorak learns that Macau Mecca is seducing at least $2.4 billion a year in potential betting revenue - about 20 percent of last year's take - from the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

This estimate is made by the HKJC's Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.

Says he: "Our customers are definitely their prime targets...If you look at the expansion of gaming opportunities and venues in Macau, which have only just started ... it's serious money."

Too true.

But Macau and Hong Kong are two peas in a pod. In the 1950s, after Mao Zedong's communists took power in mainland China, the communists banned gambling, and Macau and Hong Kong became the only Chinese enclaves where it was tolerated.

While Hong Kong only allowed horse race betting, Macau had Stanley Ho's functional casinos.

Now the likes of Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson have brought a dash of Las Vegas razzle-dazzle to Macau. And the HKJC looks less genteel than staid and old hat.

And there is more competition looming on mainland China. The Government has given the go ahead for hoe racing in Wuhan, and might permit official gambling on the races in 2009.

The HKJC might well worry. As might Macau should the Chinese start building more of their own casinos...

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Tags: Hong Kong, Macau