Hong Kong racing is soon to become a regular part of Australia's wagering diet but regulatory difficulties will prevent the Jockey Club from realising its ideal of co-mingled pools.
Five races at Sunday's Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup meeting are due to be shown live and offered for wagering in Australia, which has been a regular occurrence on international days in the past, but Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon fixtures will be telecast from May 1.
The Jockey Club is to receive a percentage of the wagering as its fee, with Australian operators initiating their own pools for Australian bet types.
But due to the tax and regulatory problems, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's goal of exporting its large pools and spectacular bet types, like the Triple Trio, to the rest of the racing world will have to wait.
'What we would like to do is have co-mingling of pools, with Australian punters betting fresh money into our pools. The possibility then exists through Hong Kong export laws to offer the betting operator down there a percentage as commission for channelling turnover to our pools here. There is a lot of interest from the Australian side in doing that,' said Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the club's executive director of racing.
'However, there are complicated issues related to tax sharing which make it technically, practically impossible. We need a different approach and that can only come about with the restructuring of the Jockey Club's overall tax situation, something we have been seeking for some time.'
