Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2008 36 Feature I f the China Daily says it, it’s probably got official blessing. “The Testing Event of China Speed Horse Race Open inWuhan on Saturday was a step toward legalizing horse race betting, even though technically speaking nobody placed a bet on the horses,” stated the newspaper in a report published soon after the race meeting in the last weekend of November . Spectators were allowed to place free bets on two of the four races at the Orient Lucky City Racecourse, and those who won were given 20 instant scratch-off tickets by the local sports lottery administration. From scratch Giving out lottery ticket prizes is a long way from operating a trackside Tote. But if China does legalise horse racing and allows it to be extended across the country, it could be another step in the roll back of six decades of stern prohibition of gambling. Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei, used to be the country’s horse racing centre in the early 1900s. But racing was banned in the country after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. “This is China’s first experiment with commercial horse racing,” Wang Shenshun, deputy head of Wuhan sports administration, was quoted as saying in China Daily . “First time organizers will offer prizes for every race, and individuals or groups can buy horses and share the prizes.” Betting rates have not been fixed, added the newspaper. Place Your Bets? China’s experiment with horse racing is strangely familiar