Gambling Boat Hong Kong
The Gambling Ordinance was enacted in 1977 to regulate gambling in Hong Kong.[1] People are allowed gamble for leisure and entertainment within these regulations at a limited number of authorized outlets. Social gambling is still allowed.
- There’s a good chance that Hong Kong’s casino boats won’t steal away a good chunk of Macau’s gamblers, but that doesn’t mean these moving sites of leisure and entertainment can’t make.
- Floating Casino Cruise Liner Entering Hong Kong, There travel out to the open seas as there are no control of cambling on open waters.
- The New Imperial Star was used as a casino ship, shuttling a mostly Chinese clientele from eastern Hong Kong into international waters where gambling is legal. For two years, it picked up.
- Hong Kong casinos, cruise ships, horsetracks and dogtracks - the complete gambling landscape of Hong Kong. Includes Hong Kong casino details, gambling news and tweets in Hong Kong, area maps, Hong Kong entertainment, coupons offers.
Hong Kong residents are permitted to bet online with the Hong Kong Jockey Club. The Hong Kong Jockey Club is authorized to offer betting on lotteries, horse racing and football over the internet. In 2002, the Hong Kong Legislative Council banned offshore gambling, including offshore internet gambling, by passing the Gambling (Amendment) Ordinance.
Legality[edit]
The government of Hong Kong restricts organized gambling to a few regulated outlets. The government enacted the Gambling Ordinance in 1977 to rein in excessive gambling while still providing gambling to the populace.[2] Gambling involving a bookmaker is illegal in Hong Kong.[2] Betting with a bookmaker and betting in a place other than a gambling establishment is illegal. The Hong Kong Jockey Club holds a government-granted monopoly on horse races, football matches, and lotteries. The revenue the club generates from various wagers makes it the largest taxpayer for the government.[3]
Hong Kong generates the largest horse race gambling turnover in the world. The Hong Kong Jockey Club founded in 1884, holds a monopoly on horse racing wagers, lotteries and football betting and is the largest taxpayer to the government.[3] In 2009, Hong Kong generated an average US$12.7 million in gambling turnover per race 6 times larger than its closest rival France at US$2 million while the United States only generated $250,000.[4]
During the 2014-2015 racing season the Hong Kong Jockey Club attracted about HK$138.8 million (US$17.86 million) per race more that any other track in the world. Hong Kong Jockey Club broke its own record during the 2016-2017 season with a turnover of HK$216.5 billion and paid the government HK$21.7 billion in duty and profits tax, an all-time high.[5]
Charities[edit]
Hong Kong has charities which have a goal to promoting responsible gambling practices among those who gamble and to minimizing the negative effects of problem gambling. Such charities also look for a balance between meeting the demand for gambling and maximizing the social and economic benefits of gambling for the community, while helping to minimize potential harm to individuals and the community.[2]
Recent events[edit]
During the 2010 World Cup, police arrested 25 people for having an illegal gambling ring that took bets on World Cup matches worth more than 66 million Hong Kong dollars. Earlier in the year the Hong Kong police set up a task force to help stop illegal football gambling.[6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Deans, R. (2001). Online gambling: changes to Hong Kong's gambling legislation. Gaming Law Review., 5(6), Retrieved from http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/109218801753336166?journalCode=glrdoi:10.1089/109218801753336166
- ^ abc'Responsible gambling policy'. Hong Kong Jockey Club. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
- ^ abBalfour, Fredrick (22 February 2016). 'Hong Kong Horse Racing Is Serious Business'. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
- ^'Hong Kong's hardcore gamblers'. CNNMoney. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
- ^Mok, Danny (1 September 2017). 'Hong Kong Jockey Club has record-breaking year'. South China Morning Post. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
- ^Hong Kong police smash illegal world cup betting ring. (2010, June 13). Asia Pacific News, Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1062884/1/.html
External links[edit]
- The Study on Hong Kong People's Participation in Gambling Activities, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, March 2012
- Tse, Samson; Yu, Alex C.H.; Rossen, Fiona; Wang, Chong-Wen (2010). 'Examination of Chinese Gambling Problems through a Socio-Historical-Cultural Perspective'. The Scientific World Journal. 10: 1694–1704. doi:10.1100/tsw.2010.167. ISSN1537-744X. OCLC48386834. PMC5763971. PMID20842314.
The galley smells like decay. Flies circle dirty pots and pans, and the temperature on board is sweltering. While the bustle of Hong Kong continues outside, a crew of 46 men and women have been stuck for six months on a cruise ship anchored in the eastern harbor, near Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.
The New Imperial Star was used as a casino ship, shuttling a mostly Chinese clientele from eastern Hong Kong into international waters where gambling is legal. For two years, it picked up passengers from the Kowloon’s bustling Tsim Sha Tsui terminal, sailed at dusk out of the city’s territorial waters and returned to Hong Kong in the morning.
But on Oct. 6 2015, the ship was detained by Hong Kong’s Marine Department for failing inspections that the crew says could have been easily passed, had they been given money for maintenance. The ship has not moved since and the crew have been stuck on board, within sight of land but unwilling to leave.
The crew is mostly of Chinese, Burmese and Ukrainian nationality, and many of their employment contracts expired months ago. But they are worried if they leave the ship, and the city of Hong Kong, they will never get the back pay owed to them—which totals hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even leaving the ship for a day is difficult—it is anchored far enough away from shore that the crew needs to rent a barge to get there, which takes money they can’t spare.
Quartz boarded the ship today (April 9) at the invitation of Captain Valeriy Lyzhyn and some crew members, who are hoping media attention may help their plight.
Gambling Boat Hong Kong Kowloon
The cabins are filthy, and the boat is unkempt. The luckier staff have a window to let in the air, others have none, and the metal of the ship draws in the heat from the hot Hong Kong days. When Quartz boarded, the temperature was 29 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit) outside, but just five minutes sitting in the still, stuffy air inside the boat was enough for sweat to start dripping. Some staff have fallen ill, and not been offered proper medical care.
“Actually, there’s no need to switch this on,” said Captain Valeriy Lyzhyn as he showed Quartz the “chilled” vegetable storage area on the ship, where all that is being stored are a few dozen tomatoes, two carrots and turnips and a handful of other produce.
The ship’s casino is now just rows of abandoned slots and gaming tables.
The crew have been fending for themselves, taking turns on a hired boat to leave the ship every 14 days to buy food. The rations that the company that owns the boat sends through a middleman do not stretch to feed 46 mouths.
The ship’s galley is empty, the few provisions locked away by the captain, as the boat’s safety officer, who did not want to be named, showed Quartz:
“For the last six months, it’s like we’re in jail here,” the officer said.
For five months, the crew have not been paid any wages, which in total are estimated to range from several hundred thousand to a million US dollars.
The ship owner, Arising International, is a single-ship shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands, according to documents seen by Quartz. The individuals behind the company are a group of Hong Kong and Chinese investors, the captain and crew said. Hong Kong-registered Skywill Management Limited is the technical manager of the ship and Sun Junhao Limited, also registered in Hong Kong, is the crewing manager and the contractual party to many of the crew on board.
When contacted on the phone, Rick Mak Ka Yan, director of Skywill and the designated person ashore for New Imperial Star, hung up when asked about the ship. At Sun Junhao’s office in Kowloon’s Hung Hom neighborhood earlier this week, the company appeared to be in the midst of moving out.
Posters plastered on their office space said the company was the subject of legal action by the owner of their office building for unpaid rent. Their Hong Kong number has been disconnected.
The owner, through middlemen Skywill and Sun Junhao, has been making dozens of promises to pay over the past few months. While some payments were made in September and October, since November none of the crew has seen a dime. “We keep being told that once we pass the inspection we will set sail and be paid,” said one of the men on board, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. The ship’s operational issues include problems with its radio communications equipment.
Originally the crew numbered 150. But some of the Chinese staff who were on board have been paid their wages and sent home, said Jason Lam, the Hong Kong representative of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), a global union of transport workers, who have been aiding the sailors.
Most of the crew now left on board do not speak English, and the crew from different countries cannot communicate with each other, making the situation even more anxious.
The problems may have been spotted much earlier had Hong Kong ratified the International Maritime Labor Convention, which stipulates the maximum period of overdue wages is 30 days.
Gambling Boat Hong Kong Tours
“It’s a shame that there’s international regulation in place that could have picked up on such a situation much earlier, but ships calling in Hong Kong cannot be inspected against such laws as Hong Kong has yet to ratify” the treaty, said Reverend Stephen Miller at The Mission to Seafarers, a non-profit currently assisting the crew alongside the ITF. Both organizations are helping the crew get legal aid and take action against the owner.
Gambling Boat Hong Kong Buffet
Beijing’s crackdown on casino gambling boats, which were a common way to move money out of mainland China, has decimated the industry. “This isn’t the first time casino ships have been involved in something like this,” added Miller.
Several crew members recalled to Quartz that there were on average just under 100 customers everyday on board, but the number declined to around 30 on the last journey in August.
Now, the crew is hoping for drastic intervention. “We have had hopes for our ship owner and offered them a chance to compromise. But now we are just waiting for the ship to be arrested,” said Captain Lyzhyn, referring to a legal process in which the crew ask Hong Kong courts seize the ship. Once the ship is arrested, the owner will be given one to two weeks to pay late wages, otherwise the ship will be sold and the proceeds will be used to pay the crew.
Ei Ei San contributed additional reporting. The authors are Hong Kong-based journalists.