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Running on Empty
More pathological gamblers are seeking counselling and spiritual help when their luck runs out. Casino croupiers are among them
It 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 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 2007, Mr Lam only looked for help in mid-2009 – the same year Mr Ng did. They both turned to the Industrial Evangelistic Fellowship Rehabilitation Centre for Problem Gamblers.
“I quit gambling for one year but I fell into temptation once,” Mr Lam says. He is quick to add that he has never taken chips from the casino to fund his addiction.
“I’m also trying to change my lifestyle. Every day, after work, instead of going to the casino again to gamble, I work for the church and take part in church activities, such as cooking for my fellows,” he says.
Mr Ng says he too, has fallen into temptation.
“In the beginning of the rehab programme, I gambled a couple of times, because it was not easy to pass by the casino every day and deal with it.”
Today, he is a building security guard working for the government. His wife controls the household income.
“My wife is very tough. She has been through a lot of troubles to take care of the family. I hope my family can become united and love each other. But at least I never asked for money from anybody. I knew that if I went to the loan sharks I would be in trouble.”
Mr Ng has turned to music to alleviate the withdrawal pains. “I learned how to play the guitar after I quit gambling. I compose lots of songs.”
Curiosity wanes
The Macau Industrial Evangelistic Fellowship supports 200 problem and pathological gamblers. The Reverend Jimmy Tan Tien Kok says 10 people come to ask for help on an average week. Some are old faces.
The rehabilitation centre has dealt with people that have lost up to MOP5 million. However, Reverend Tan believes far worse cases pass undetected, especially among Hong Kong punters flocking to Macau’s casinos, who may have losses ranging up to MOP20 million.
He says there are more addicted gamblers per head of population in Macau than there are in Hong Kong. The authorities and charities have to pay more attention to youths and women, he adds.
The number of pathological gamblers in Macau continues to increase (see story in these pages). However, for the first time in four years, it looks as if efforts to encourage responsible gaming are paying off.
The latest study by the University of Macau’s Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming says the gaming participation rate, which measures the proportion of Macau residents that gamble, dropped to 50 percent last year from 65 percent in 2007.
“This is a good sign for those who promote responsible gambling because it means that, in the near future, the problem gambling rate should decrease or stabilise,” says institute director assistant professor Davis Fong Ka Chio.
“Macau people are adapting to casinos as part of their daily lives. There is not so much curiosity when a new property opens.”
He also says awareness of problem gambling is increasing. The institute started a responsible gaming project in 2007, together with the government, charities and the casino industry, and since then things seem to have improved.
“Awareness of problem gambling and responsible gaming increased from 25 to 40 percent. That means that, with the promotion efforts in the past two years, four out of every 10 residents have heard about and understand the concepts of problem and responsible gaming,” he says.
Work and play
Mr Lam, the casino dealer, was among those that had never heard about problem gambling. “I don’t think there are enough places in Macau able to provide assistance to problem gamblers,” he says.
He found the Macau Industrial Evangelistic Fellowship on the Internet. He says he had never seen materials promoting awareness of problem gambling, even at his workplace – a casino.
“I have many friends working at the casino that are also pathological gamblers. We live under lots of pressure, because we are too exposed and they don’t realise that.
“We are not told how to release tension, so we just keep the problem to ourselves. If we talk about that, we will be kicked out of the job,” he says.
Assistant professor Fong admits responsible gaming and promotion of awareness of problem gambling are still “at an initial stage”.
He estimates that it will take up to three years for the gaming industry to understand how important it is to mount responsible gaming campaigns among its staff. Problem gambling destroys the employer-employee relationship, according to him.
“They [the gaming companies] will understand that 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.
