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Gamblers using a telephone service to bet on World Cup football this summer could be breaking the law.

 Officials said yesterday they would be monitoring Victor Chandler International, which is launching a club in Hong Kong and runs a bookmaker's from Gibraltar for clients all over the world.

 Mr Chandler insisted his operations complied with Hong Kong law, saying his sports 'club' would supply members with football information, such as team news and injury updates from this summer's World Cup in France, but would offer no odds and take no bets.

 Members could also make toll-free calls to the Gibraltar operation - which takes bets - but Mr Chandler said the club was 'most definitely not' a front for bookmaking.

 He conceded: 'What people do with their mobile phones is up to them and none of my business.'  Company director Michael Carlton said legal advice made it clear neither the club nor overseas bookmaking broke any laws.

 'We don't offer any odds, take any bets or even have any betting slips,' he said.

 Thousands of Hong Kong residents have telephone betting accounts with the Macau Jockey Club and all are understood to be legal.

 But the Home Affairs Bureau said the Government only allowed limited forms of gambling, including horse-racing and the Mark Six.

 A Hong Kong resident phoning overseas to place a bet on a foreign event could be deemed to be gambling locally and breaking the law.

 The maximum penalty for running an illegal gambling establishment is a $5 million fine and seven years in jail.

 Mr Chandler, whose family business has operated since 1946, is also under scrutiny from the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

 He bet on Sunday's Queen Elizabeth II Cup through Gibraltar and later reported the best business yet done on a Hong Kong race.

 After meeting concerned Jockey Club security chief David Twynham yesterday, he said: 'I regret to say I thought Mr Twynham was somewhat aggressive.' 



World Cup phone-bet service may be ruled offside in SAR