Punters who make exotic horseracing bets will see payouts reduced by a fraction, in a move that will bring Government coffers an extra $150 million annually.

The Legislative Council today passed resolutions to implement a Budget proposal to increase betting duty for horseracing exotic bets. On March 5, the Financial Secretary has proposed increasing the duty from 19% to 20% to help raise revenue.

Exotic bets include the six-up, treble, tierce, trio, double trio and triple trio. Currently, 76% of the turnover on exotic bets goes to payouts, 19% to betting duty and the remaining 5% to the Hong Kong Jockey Club's commission.

The resolutions increased the betting duty rate on exotic bets by 1% to 20% and reduced the payout rate to 75%.

In moving the resolutions, the Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Frederick Ma  noted that betting duty is an important and stable source of recurrent revenue. In 2002-03, it generated $11.1 billion, representing more than 7% of total general revenue.

Of this, he said, revenue from the duty on horseracing bets amounts to $9.7 billion, with $2.7 billion coming from exotic bets.

He estimated that, in a full year, the increase in the exotic bet duty rate would bring in an additional $150 million in revenue.

The adjustments will take effect from August 1.