Computer glitch fixed, say red-faced officials

The Hong Kong Jockey Club yesterday said it had solved the computer fault which caused the odds indicator boards to fail on Wednesday night at Happy Valley and in the off-course betting centres, leading to a loss of $15-$20 million in betting turnover.

The Club would expect betting turnover of $930-940 million at a normal midweek meeting, but it took in only $917 million on Wednesday night. The computer problems were also a public relations disaster for the Club, which issued an apology and offered a complimentary admission ticket to racegoers in compensation.

A Jockey Club spokesman said last night: 'The problem has been fixed and there should be no repeat at Sha Tin [tomorrow].'

The boards first blacked out before the fourth event on the seven-race card and the problem continued intermittently during the second half of the meeting, with one blackout lasting about 10 minutes.

Many frustrated punters left before the meeting eventually finished after 11pm, more than half an hour behind schedule, following several delays to the race programme as the Club's information technology team attempted to solve the problem.

The Club spokesman added that Wednesday's blackouts were not related to the wholesale failure of the betting system in October, when no bets or payouts could be made on course or in the off-track betting halls. 'That was a more serious fault with the main betting system, which handles the taking of bets, payouts and calculations,' the spokesman said.