Activities planned for October at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Conghua racecourse will be postponed after the Club received a recent risk assessment from mainland authorities. The announcement did not specify the risk involved or give a revised timetable. [No citation markers in prose.]
The Club said it had discussed the matter with the relevant parties, which agreed to continue close cooperation and jointly formulate appropriate response measures. The postponement was announced on September 2, when the Club held its annual general meeting and released its results for the 2025/26 financial year.
The Club reported that total betting and lottery turnover rose 3.6 per cent year on year to HK$331.7 billion in the year from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
Football betting was the strongest performer, with turnover reaching a historical high of HK$179 billion, up from HK$172.8 billion. The Club attributed the increase to newly approved betting types, additional leagues, a major football event held over the summer and the performance of its football-betting trading team.
Turnover from local horse racing also rose 3.6 per cent to HK$143.3 billion. Betting on Hong Kong races from 26 countries and regions totalled HK$34.3 billion, equivalent to 23.9 per cent of overall horse-racing turnover.
The Club said it continued to face competition from illegal gambling, the additional HK$2.4 billion annual football-betting tax and the government’s suspension of approval for a regulated basketball-betting licence. It also said heavy investment in technology, a new sports-betting platform and the development of the Conghua racecourse meant operating surpluses were expected to decline in coming years while the investments took time to generate full returns.
The Club reported a combined HK$39.3 billion contribution through betting and profits tax, lottery-fund allocations and charitable donations. The supplied reports gave different figures for the Club’s income and varied in how they described the contribution, so no further breakdown was provided here.
At the annual general meeting, Kenneth Fok was elected as a director to replace retiring director Kong Siu-Hung, while Chairman Liu Cheong-kong and Vice-Chairman Wong Ka-chun were re-elected, according to one report. No new date for the postponed Conghua activities was announced.