HK Jockey Club concerned about casino competition

The Hong Kong Jockey Club posted a 10 percent increase in racing turnover in the 2013/2014 financial year, but warned it was facing challenges from illegal gambling and from the growing number of Asian countries planning to legalize casinos.
According to estimates, it said Hong Kong people lost about $31 billion ($3.99 billion) in Macau casinos last year alone.
“We see the opening of the Hong Kong–Macau Bridge, scheduled for 2016, as posing a further significant challenge,” retiring chairman T. Brian Stevenson said in a note releasing the club’s annual results.
In the 2013/2014 financial year, racing turnover hit HK$103.92 billion, producing a net margin for the club of HK$4.42 billion, a 7.4 percent increase. 
On the football betting side, turnover rose 22.9 percent to $62.2 billion helped by the 2014 World Cup, for which 54 of the 64 matches fell into the financial year. However, commenting on the results, chief executive officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said the tournament wasn’t the only supporting factor and the club had seen steady growth throughout the year “after conducting a systematic analysis of how it could compete better with the illegal market and channel more of the growing local football betting demand to the legal operator.”
Turnover for the Mark Six lottery gained 3.7 percent to HK$7.91 billion, generating HK$1.98 billion in lottery duty payments and commission of HK$475 million for the Club.
Engelbrecht-Bresges said last year the club had been able to offer commingled betting pools for the first time. 
"Partnerships with Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Macau and parts of Europe will get under way in the new season," he said. "This will give hundreds of thousands of racing fans across the globe the opportunity to bet into Hong Kong pools, which have the world's highest liquidity and highest average turnover per race at over HK$132 million.” 
"Looking ahead, I am cautiously optimistic of seeing continued positive growth in our racing and betting operations, but competition in the leisure and entertainment business is growing all the time," he added.
The HKJC has appointed Stephen Ip as Brian Stephenson’s successor who is retiring after four years in the role of chairman. Ip has been with the company since 1973 and a voting member since 1992. He was elected to the board of stewards in 1999. Ip was a practising solicitor until his retirement from legal practice in 2004 and also served as president of the Law Society of Hong Kong.
Anthony Chow has been appointed deputy chairman, while three stewards have been re-elected to the board: Ip, Lester Kwok, and Eric Cheung. All four stewards will serve three-year terms until the 2017 annual general meeting.