The DAB conducted a survey on youth gambling habits earlier. Nearly 20% of the respondents had gambled on football matches, and nearly 20% of them were under the age of 18.
The DAB Chan Hak-qin asked the Secretary for Home Affairs Xu Yingwei in the Legislative Council today (18) the number of police crackdowns on illegal gambling in the past three years and whether it will study whether the legal gambling age will be further raised from 18 to 21.
The Secretary for Home Affairs, Xu Yingwei, responded that the government clearly does not encourage gambling and allows limited and regulated legal gambling channels to avoid turning to illegal gambling.
However, Xu Yingwei subsequently refuted the comments quoted by Chen Keqin, emphasizing that they did not agree that the Jockey Club’s betting methods had caused young people to indulge in gambling. Instead, illegal betting operators introduced new methods from time to time to expand the source of customers. The Jockey Club must monitor changes and update the betting methods as appropriate. , To maintain a certain degree of competitiveness, and said that it will ensure that the proposed method does not worsen the gambling trend.
Xu Yingwei also believes that raising the legal gambling age to 21 to deal with youth gambling problems "seems to be unable to prescribe the right medicine", and believes that this may increase the participation of young people aged 18 to 20 in illegal gambling and gambling behavior. The risk of the problem.
In the Legislative Council, Chan Keqin questioned orally inquired about the relevant figures of illegal gambling and found that the amount of money involved rose sharply last year.
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Illegal gambling plummeted in 2019Last year's betting receipts and amounts involved surged
Chan Keqin asked about illegal gambling statistics in the Legislative Council. Xu Yingwei replied after consulting the Security Bureau that 5,048 people were arrested in 2018, of which 77 were arrested for accepting bets, involving about 155 million yuan, including about 1.47. 100 million yuan of betting receipts and about 8.3 million yuan of money; 3,296 people were arrested in 2019, of which only two were arrested for taking bets, involving about 4.7 million yuan, including about 2 million yuan of betting receipts and about 2.7 million yuan of money.
However, as of 2020, a total of 5,198 people have been arrested, of which 19 were arrested for accepting bets, and the amount involved has soared to 620 million yuan, including about 591 million yuan in betting receipts and about 8.3 million yuan in payments.
Chen Keqin questioned the specific work done by the authorities to reduce the problem of gambling. He said that the amount of money seized by the police has soared, which proves that the problem of illegal gambling is serious.
Xu Yingwei said that the epidemic has caused legal casinos to close and the periphery has risen sharply
Xu Yingwei responded that the Jockey Club figures show that the account and betting levels of bettors under 21 have continued to decline, emphasizing that the government will step up enforcement actions to stop illegal gambling.
He specifically mentioned that due to the closure of many legal gambling establishments during the epidemic, illegal gambling has become serious, and he believes that law enforcement figures reflect the effect.
At the same time, Xu Yingwei pointed out that illegal gambling has become more diverse. He also noticed that in the relevant investigation, 20% of people who had gambled have gambled through external bookmakers. Therefore, it is necessary to study how to prevent illegal gambling from worsening the gambling trend, but he agrees that Ma will not Fighting illegal gambling to spend more money to attract gamblers, stressing that we must first step up interception, and then study the problem of avoiding the strengthening of gambling.
As for the work progress of the authorities on the gambling research report, Xu Yingwei pointed out that the authorities have started the research in early 2021 and expect to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, and will share it again by then.
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