HONG KONG, June 20: Hong Kong may not have a team at the World Cup but that has not stopped interest reaching stratospheric proportions because of the craze for soccer betting.

The current World Cup competition in Germany is the first since Hong Kong legalised soccer gambling three years ago and the territory's already healthy appetite for betting is at fever pitch.

Alan Ho, a store manager, is impatient for Brazil's next game.

Confident the South Americans will go all the way, he is betting HK$800 (US$102) on the reigning world champions every time they play.

“I think Brazil will meet Argentina in the final and Brazil will win,” Ho said.

Soccer gambling was legalised to curb illegal soccer betting, which totalled at least HK$20 billion in 2001, the government estimates.

Taxation of legal soccer gambling meanwhile raised HK$2 billion in fiscal 2004-05, helping push government finances into the black for the first time since the Asian financial crisis.

Gambling on matches has become so popular that even 10 percent of school children aged between 9 and 12 said they planned to bet on World Cup matches in a survey by Watsons Athletic Club.

Retailers and bars are keen to cash in on World Cup games, which begin at 2100 local time and go on until 0500.

Shopping malls are packed overnight with some installing massage chairs to encourage people to stay for late matches.

One mall has sleeping bags and shower facilities available for shoppers who spend more than HK$1,000.

At Olympian City, a suburban mall, crowds gathered in front of huge TV screens to watch Portugal play Iran.

Cheerleaders on a stage throw giant soccer balls into a seated audience before the game begins. When it does, the crowd cheers both sides' efforts at goal in equal measure - Iran supporters say they want to back an Asian team.

Hong Kongers are avid football fans thanks to 24-hour cable soccer channels that screen matches from the major European leagues.

“Every night there is some football news or game on TV,” said Jonathan Lau, a personal trainer.

“I love watching English football.”—Reuters