Golden Empire™
Mystery Link
Bally Technologies, Your Partner in Innovation, introduces its Golden Empire™ Mystery Progressive, a thrilling new three or four-level mystery progressive link. Add the Golden Empire link over your standalone video slot machines from Bally to enhance performance and add excitement to game play.
Running on Empty I
by Alexandra Lages
More pathological gamblers are seeking counselling and spiritual help when their luck runs out. Casino croupiers are among them
t is 10am but Mr Lam (not his real name) has had just one hour’s sleep. He is a dealer at a casino and this week he is on nightshift. The sleepy 32-year-old is counting down the days until he leaves the job. Working at the casino has been a nightmare for him but he has no choice. Only by doing so can he earn enough money to pay his gambling debts.
Mr Lam is a pathological gambler but he keeps it a
secret at work. If he speaks out, it might cost him his job. Every day, he works behind a gaming table handing out cards, pretending he can control his own gambling.
Because of his dependence, he gambled away MOP2 million (US$250,000) and lost a girlfriend. Instead of big money, he won big troubles: an addiction, family problems, a MOP1-million debt and loan sharks at his heels. Mr Lam placed his first bet in a casino in 1997, “just for fun”, he told Macau Business. “Sometimes with friends, sometimes just by myself,” he says. He was working as a chef in a Chinese restaurant.
“Working there was very dull. Every day it was the same routine,” he recalls. After 10 years in the kitchen, he became a casino dealer in 2006. One year later, he realised he was addicted to gambling. “As a dealer, I started to feel that other gamblers’
bets were also my own, like I was the one that was winning the money. I was really immersed in the whole thing, even when I wasn’t gambling, just watching others to do it during my work.” The trouble is a gambler cannot always win. Paying off gambling debts became Mr Lam’s primary day-to-day concern. Even though he was
20 SEPTEMBER 2011
making a good salary, it was never enough. The money would vanish as soon as he stepped onto a casino floor.
Mr Lam spent one or two hours a day gambling. He
would leave only when the money ran out. He would regularly lose MOP10,000 each session. Mr Lam’s mother has managed to pay MOP1 million of his gambling debts for him. He still owes MOP1 million to loan sharks. “In those days, my relationship with my family was
very bad. I was always losing lots of money. I lost one girlfriend because of that. Now, my mother’s emotional problems are getting better and she is not so depressed anymore,” Mr Lam says.
Change of tune
Mr Ng (not his real name), 48, never thought he could spend so much money at one sitting. “I used to stay in the casino for four hours every day until I would lose it all,” he says. He started gambling 30 years ago, when he was 18 and Macau was not yet the world’s gaming capital. Between then and 2009, when he first sought help for his addiction, he lost MOP300,000. “When I started gambling, I became greedy. Every
day I went to the maritime harbour to work as a porter. At night, when I got my salary, I would immediately go to the casino to play sic bo,” he recalls.
Mr Ng recognised his addiction when things at
home went south. “I had no money to give to my wife and two sons. My income was very low, as well as my wife’s.”
Although he realised he had a gambling disorder in
Illustrations by Rui Rasquinho
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56