In Hong Kong, all gambling on horse-racing is administered by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC). There are no (legal) bookmakers or fixed-odds bets. All wagers are transferred to a single pari-mutuel pool and dividends are calculated by the totaliser which determines the starting-price in the usual fashion by first removing the 'house cut', and then allocating the distribution of the balance in the kitty to punters holding winning tickets.

The minimum stake is HK$10 6 and the minimum winning payout is HK$10.507.

Types of Bets available on a single race are as follows:

Win

Also known as a Straight Bet, or a Single, this is the simplest bet. A bet on a horse To Win will collect only if the chosen horse is the first across the finish line.

Place

The Place Bet is essentially a Hedged Win Bet. Typically, dividends are dramatically reduced as the chances of collecting any dividend are greatly increased.

A winning Place bet will pay for first, second or third in a race with seven or more declared starters and first or second in a race with between four and six declared starters.

Placing two bets, one for a win and one for a place, is essentially the same as an English Each-Way bet.

Quinella

A Quinella Bet is the selection of two horses to finish first and second in either order in a given race. In English racing, this is known as a Reverse Forecast.

Quinella Place (QP)

The QP is a punt on any two of the first three placed horses in any finishing order. Although one bet covers two horses, six winning scenarios (first and second; second and first; first and third; third and first; second and third; third and second) are covered and dividends drop accordingly.

Tierce

A winning Tierce Bet requires the correct selection of three horses to come first, second and third in the correct order in the race. Dividends paid out on this type of bet are typically high.

Trio

The Trio is in effect a 'hedged' Tierce. Whereas the Tierce is one single bet, the trio covers all permutations of the three selected horses to finish first, second and third in the race and is thus six bets under one stake. Thus, in theory, winning Trio dividends should be roughly one sixth those paid to winning Tierce ticket holders.

Double Trio

A winning Double Trio requires the correct selection of two winning trios (see above) in two races (or legs) predetermined by the HKJC. A normal race meeting may have two Double Trios, being called the First Double Trio and the Second Double Trio.

Triple Trio

Like the Double Trio (see above), a winning Triple Trio requires the correct selection of three winning trios (see above) in three races (or legs) predetermined by the HKJC. A normal race meeting will only have one Triple Trio. Typically a Consolation is paid to punters who are successful over the first two legs but whose selections fail to perform over the third leg.

Double

A punter collects if he correctly selects the winners of two nominated races. This is effectively a two-horse accumulator. A Consolation is paid out if a gambler's selections come in first in the first leg and second in the second leg.

Treble

In a winning Treble, a punter must correctly selects the winners of three nominated races. This is effectively an accumulator over three races. A Consolation is paid out if a gambler's selections come in first in both the first and second leg and second in the third leg.

Six-up

To collect on a winning Six-up ticket, a punter must correctly forecast a horse in each of six nominated races to either win or come second. This is also known in racing vernacular as a Pick Six. An additional Six-up Bonus is payable to a punter whose six selections each win their respective races.

    1 The reference to the UK Monarchy was dropped in 1997, when sovereignty of Hong Kong was 'handed back' to China.
    2 Mass Transit Railway.
    3 Cantonese: Sha Tin = Sand Field.
    4 250 acres reclaimed from the sea using 14 million cubic yards of hillside deposited into the reclamation site, at the rate of one truck per 8.5 seconds.
    5 Kowloon-Canton Railway.
    6 £1 = HK$12, at the time of writing.
    7 This would be '20/1 on' in English gambling parlance, and would indicate that a horse could well win the race with its hooves tied behind its back. Thus, notably, only in the extraordinarily unlikely circumstance where a winning horse is more than twenty times further subscribed than the aggregate wagers on all other horses in the race would the HKJC lose money.