MACAU BUSINESS
responsible gaming not only benefits society, but also the operators. This group of people [casino workers] is quite significant,” the scholar says.
A spreading disease Government agencies and charities have reported
an increase in the number of problem and pathological gamblers in recent times. The Social Welfare Bureau’s Resilience Counselling
Centre for Problem Gambling received 96 cases last year. That was 28 cases more than in 2009. The charitable Sheng Kung Hui Counselling Service for Problem Gamblers says it had 30 more new cases in the first five months of this year than in the corresponding period last year. The latest study by the University of Macau’s
Institute of Commercial Gaming found that 2.8 percent of Macau residents aged between 15 and 64 could be categorized as probable pathological gamblers. In 2003, the figure was 1.7 percent. By 2007, it increased to 2.6 percent. The 2010-study says most gamblers struggling with a gaming addiction are not exclusively from Macau but also visitors from the mainland and Hong Kong. The director of the University of Macau’s Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming, assistant professor Davis Fong Ka Chio, is confident the number of cases will fall in the long run as awareness of responsible gaming increases. He says the rate of growth in pathological gambling has slowed since 2007. Bo Bernhard, the director of gambling research at
the International Gaming Institute of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, thinks Macau is still taking the first steps towards promoting responsible gaming. But he says the city should not look to Las Vegas for advice, since efforts there are also only in their early stages. “In the last five years, we started to devote some
research and treatment money to problem gambling. So, in many ways, Las Vegas is actually behind some other gaming jurisdictions, like Australia and Canada,” Mr Bernhard says. He notes each jurisdiction should find solutions to problem gambling that suit the culture and size of
the problem. Mr Bernhard says Macau’s recent move to increase the age for entering and working in casinos to 21 from 18 is in the right direction. “When we are 18 years old, the brain isn’t fully formed. It’s like a car without brakes. The braking system isn’t fully developed. From the problem gambling standpoint, it is a good move for Macau.”
Tracking disorders
There are several ways of assessing whether someone has a gambling addiction. The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”, published by the American Psychiatric Association, includes a total of 10 criteria (see below). If a gambler meets three or four of them, they are
classified as a “problem gambler”; if they meet more, they are a “pathological gambler”.
The gambler:
• Is preoccupied with gambling (e.g., preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture or thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble); • Needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement; • Has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back or stop gambling; • Is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling; • Gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression); • After losing money gambling, often returns another day in order to get even (“chasing” one’s losses); • Lies to family members, therapist or others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling; • Has committed illegal acts, such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement, in order to finance gambling; • Has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job or educational or career opportunity because of gambling; • Relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling.
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