Triads laughing all the way to bank as move to change law gets bogged down, says senior official

Soccer gambling will not be legalised in time for the World Cup finals next year, a senior government source has told the Sunday Morning Post.

He also warned that the 'triads will be laughing all the way to the bank' because of the political deadlock over soccer betting.

The dire prediction came as the Government begins sifting through more than 6,000 public submissions after a consultation process on legalising soccer betting ended this month.

The October deadline was the latest stage in the Home Affairs Bureau's assessment of whether to press ahead with legalisation. But it comes against the backdrop of an increasingly polarised and rancorous public debate.

Opponents, including the Democratic Party, have accused the Government of having a covert agenda to legalise soccer betting in time for the 2002 event in Korea and Japan.

But the senior government source said: 'It will not happen in time for 2002.'

The prediction will be seen as a setback for Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen who has warned that illegal soccer betting is rampant. In his last Budget speech as financial secretary in March, Mr Tsang stressed the need to tackle the issue before the World Cup amid mounting evidence of soccer betting boom.