Question No. 6
Reply by
The Hon D G Jeaffreson, CBE, JP, Secretary for Security
to a question from the Hon Rosanna Tam in the
Legislative Council meeting of 25 March 1987
Question:
With reference to the reply given by the Attorney General to a question raised in this Council on 29 January 1986 concerning the proposed control of unlicensed billiard clubs, will Government inform this Council what progress has been made so far and what will be the time-frame for implementing such a proposal?
Reply:
Sir, Since this subject was last raised in this Council in January 1986, the licensing authorities for public billiard saloons, which are the Urban and Regional Councils, have conducted extensive consultations and discussions with the District Boards, the Heung Yee Kuk and the New Territories General Chamber of Commerce. Based on the views collected, the Councils have now agreed that billiard clubs should be required to obtain a licence, in the same way as licensed public billiard saloons. But bona fide clubs providing billiard facilities should be exempted from licensing.
The purpose of this proposal is to control those bogus private billiard clubs which masquerade as private clubs when they are in fact being run as commercial "public" billiard saloons.
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