Soccer in Europe, baseball in the United States, and horse racing in Hong Kong, what do they have in common? The excitement level the sports bestow to their respective audience.

If Europe appreciates soccer, and the United States crazy about baseball, in Hong Kong, well they celebrate horse racing.

Horse racing in Hong Kong is probably one of the far-famed influences of the British colony. They established the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club in 1884, which now famously known as HKJC or Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Ten years after this mega city returned to its motherland China, horse racing continued to thrill Hong Kong people. Given this cultural lifestyle, the sport also developed support from the central government.

In fact Hong Kong’s largest tax payer is surprisingly a horse racing business. HKJC annually draws in over 10% of the city government’s tax revenue being one of the top 10 employers.

In addition to the Club’s philanthropy, it is the largest charity organization with its donation exceeding US$ 1.3 billion for the past three years according to People’s Daily Online (peopledaily.com.cn).

Live horse racing events in Hong Kong are held in two of HKJC’s racecourses, Happy Valley and Sha Tin. Racing season are mostly on Wednesdays and weekends between September and June. Fans are busy during these race days, wherein they are perusing the odds of their favorite horses either thru the newspaper or over the internet.

HKJC run over 700 stakes races yearly. And one of the most awaited showcase racing is the Hong Kong International Races, also known as Turf World Championship. It is a tournament where the world’s best jockeys, trainers, champion horses and contenders are all in one event.

Estimated sports goer during racing season is about 1.2 million each racing day, based on the Club’s statistics. And they employ about 5,000 regular employees and 20,000 part-timers more during the season. From that number alone, imagine the crowd size of this mega sports event. And from there it is not at all surprising to know that HKJC welcomes US$ 215 million bets each racing day.

Everybody wants to have a piece of that daily figure for sure. And apart from Hong Kong, the world is watching.

With off track betting (online), anybody from anywhere in the world could place a bet, provided you have an advance deposit wagering. ADW is like a prepaid transaction, requiring advance deposits. You are to setup an account (telephone or online) before placing a long-distance bet. Like a debit card you can only consume what you deposited.

Given these preparations, anybody could just fire up a hand-held, a laptop or desktop computer and lit up a wired or wireless internet connection. Right there and then you could retrieve up-to-the-second odds of Hong Kong horse racing and place bets wherever you are in the planet.

Indeed, horse racing in Hong Kong is literally, world-class.

I’ve had my share of betting when I was a little kid, but not in terms of money. Back then I remember it is all a matter of acquiring betting capabilities against other children. Like winning more cards, more packs, more bottle crowns and candy wrappers. Winning means more opportunities of playing.

During the low technology days, there are only two legal game-of-chances that I know of, one is the lottery or sweepstakes and the other is horse racing. Let’s talk about the latter.

I‘ve seen several horse racing betting stations on my daily travel during college. These stations are always located near main roads and avenues, a positioning strategy to attract more gamers probably. They are traditional type with TV and an army of wagers glued to it. Its popularity is so huge that in an instant you can tell a crowd with a TV is a horse race betting event.

Today, since almost all aspects of life are coping up with technology it’s no surprise to see horse betting exchange in cyberspace. An off-tack internet gambling facility that connects you whether you’re at home, in the office, at school or anywhere else. You can place your bets through legal internet and telephone wagering.

There are loads of online exchange that offers horse racing. Mostly from the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Hongkong to name a few. Now you get the pleasure to gamble across the world without moving a seat.

Legal internet gambling works in what they call Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) where in bettors are required to set up accounts and deposit money in advance, before they can make their long-distance bets.

Horse betting has single and multiple-race types of bet with which names and terms might differ in one country to another. Some common examples of single-race bets are (1) the bettor picks the winner of the race, (2) the bettor picks either the 1^st,2^nd or 3^rd placer of the game and (3) the bettor picks the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd finishers in order. Common examples of multiple-race type is the same with the single-race bet but this time the bet is spread out to the number of Leg Race.

Online betting exchange like the conventional also has its own rules by which they call betting systems. There are several betting systems in an online scenario. But the most popular among race-type or sporting bets are fixed odds betting and parimutuel betting.

Both systems are used to games with relatively short time period which players or participants finish in a ranked order. The difference between fixed odds and parimutuel betting is that the former determines the payout after all bets has been counted and closed, while the latter agreed the payout at the time you place your bet.

Now let’s go to horse betting with its advantages. Aside from winning personally, let me emphasize one good public proof of its advantage. Well they say the haven of horse track racing in Asia is Hongkong. Under Hongkong Jockey Club (HKJC) are two famous race tracks: the striking Sha Tin and the 150-year-old Happy Valley Horse Racing Track. The thing is HKJC is not your ordinary organization that promotes horse racing. The institution happens to be the biggest taxpayer of Hongkong, as well as the largest private donor of charity funds according to Wikipedia.

The disadvantage of course in an individual level is losing and being addicted at the same time. In a bigger picture there might be illegal institutions that just saps cash out of everybody without paying taxes.

Gambling has pleasure that pays off risks, win or lose. To bet or not to bet is up to you. Mine is an overview of a beginner in an online horse betting. Or gambling thru the electronic media as a whole.

What is an ADW or Advance Deposit Wagering? Well, ADW means a wager in which a person who has opened an account in advance with a licensee can place bets from this account in person, by telephone or other even online/over the internet.

You can encounter the word ADW in Pari-mutuel, a gambling involves betting on horse or greyhound, harness racing.

For quick view how ADW looks like here are some sites offered Advance Deposit Wagering:

Premier Turf Club

You bet

Racing Channel

Xpressbet

Tvgnetwork