I'm sure that most local sports fans will be eagerly awaiting the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off in Johannesburg in South Africa tonight. This quadrennial football tournament, first hosted in Uruguay back in 1930, has now become established as one of the most popular sporting events in the world, matched by the summer Olympic Games.
While we can look forward to blanket coverage of the World Cup news in our local media in the next four weeks, one less happy consequence is that we are also likely to read a lot more stories about the problems caused by illegal gambling syndicates, who are always at their most active during the World Cup. In fact it has already started, and the police have announced that they will step up their efforts to combat illegal betting in clubs and bars. Several reports have appeared of crackdowns on illegal betting syndicates on the Mainland.
While most of the recent crackdowns have involved illegal betting and bookmaking, I noticed that there was one police raid in Hong Kong which involved illicit gambling on Texas Hold’em – a poker game which is very popular in online casinos and among younger people. Media reports suggest that this game has become more common lately in private clubs and other clandestine settings, and that there is virtually no monitoring of these unauthorised activities, unlike the Club's regulated racing and betting services which come under very close scrutiny. I think this is quite an alarming sign for society, and one that deserves attention from the various concern groups that focus their work on youth behaviour.
Certainly from our perspective at the Jockey Club, we have always been very concerned about discouraging young people from gambling. From now until the end of the World Cup, we will be stepping up our efforts to ensure that the underaged cannot get entry to any of our betting premises, nor access any Club betting accounts.
We will also remind local residents, and young people especially, about the serious risks of betting with illegal bookies through football websites, in particular the dangers of being snared into betting on credit, which can quickly lead to problem gambling and loansharking activities. In addition, we will be broadcasting four education TV episodes on the World Cup TV channels to disseminate messages about avoiding credit betting, and remind football fans about the serious risks of betting with illegal bookies. So I hope you will help us get this important message across.
Football is a fantastic sport and it would be a great shame if the excitement of the World Cup gets marred by news stories of the wrong kind. As a keen football fan myself, I'm looking forward to this tournament a lot and, as you might expect, I will cheering first and foremost for my home country's team, Germany.
They've done quite well in the past two editions of the World Cup, finishing runners-up to Brazil in Japan and Korea in 2002, then taking a creditable third place in our homeland four years ago. But it's going to be tougher for Germany to match that this year, as one of our key players, Michael Ballack, has been ruled out with an ankle injury, and a number of others in the squad lack wide international experience. Despite that, I still think Germany has a good team which should reach the quarter-finals, and a good chance even making it to the semis. For the other teams, I think Spain, Brazil and Holland will be the ones having better chances in winning this year’s tournament.
For the opening match tonight, it’s obvious that South Africa will have tremendous crowd support and the players will all be giving their very best in the match, but the Mexican team has shown nice teamwork in a few friendlies they played recently. I think they have a good chance to get a draw when they face the hosts tonight.
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