Licensing and regulation: Can we get a licence?

The bloc's clearest licensing-and-regulation movement is in Hong Kong, where the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau suspended implementation of the Betting Duty (Amendment) Bill 2025. The Legislative Council had passed this Bill in September 2025 to legalise basketball betting under the existing Hong Kong Jockey Club licensed-monopoly structure, but the Bureau has now paused implementation pending a further study of prediction-market risk. This marks a reversal of an expected market opening: a measure that had completed the legislative process is now administratively suspended before commencement, rather than being blocked by a court or struck down by further legislation. The Jockey Club's existing statutory monopoly over horse racing and football betting continues to operate unaffected by this suspension. No change to the underlying statutory basis of the Jockey Club licence structure was evidenced, and no other bloc jurisdiction's licensing framework showed a within-window change dated to a primary source.