Call to check tech trends when drafting policies after basketball betting U-turn
Development of technology is faster than the pace of legislation, ex-lawmaker notes
An amendment bill to the Betting Duty Ordinance was passed in September to empower the secretary for home and youth affairs to license a basketball betting operator in the city, aiming to tackle illegal gambling.
“The development of technology is faster than the pace of legislation. In such a situation, if the government is worried that betting will be easily manipulated by others, halting it is not a bad thing,” former lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon said.
“In future legislative processes, when the government prepares its policy papers, it should include a prediction on [the influence of] technological development, as we do not wish to see such a situation for a second time.”
The prediction market refers to a cryptocurrency-based gambling model, where participants can trade “shares” based on the outcome of a specific “yes-or-no event”, such as the results of elections and sports competitions.