Jockey Club to ensure guide dogs allowed into betting shops after blind man barred

The Hong Kong Jockey Club has promised to post signs on its betting-shop doors saying guide dogs are welcome after staff tried to stop a blind man with a guide dog from buying a lottery ticket.

The club has also reminded all security staff of the policy to accept guide dogs and contacted a guide-dog charity to discuss using its official door signs and holding talks with staff.

The move follows a article last weekend and complaints to the Jockey Club after David Wong Man-chiu and his guide dog Google were told to leave a North Point betting shop on October 10.

According to Wong's family and friends who were with him at the time, he was immediately surrounded by three members of staff who blocked his path and demanded that he leave.

One of the group, Wong's daughter Vicky Wong Wing-ki, said the incident had been very frustrating and embarrassing to her 65-year-old father, who has been blind for 35 years.

Under the Disability Discrimination Ordinance, it is an offence for someone to refuse services or entry to a blind person accompanied by a guide dog at any place open to the public.

Friend Angie Scott, who was with David Wong at the time, said she had complained to the Equal Opportunities Commission and also written to the Hong Kong Jockey Club.