An extract from Channelnewsasia
SINGAPORE : Every social service centre in Singapore should have trained counsellors to identify problem gamblers.
This tops the wish list of the National Council on Problem Gambling, which will soon begin its second term.
The council also wants to reach out to more young people by working with schools.
It says the fundamentals to tackle problem gambling already exist but it wants to do much more.
The council has just ended its first two-year term and now wants to focus its next two years on refining and expanding its current activities.
That is why it wants to train at least one staff member in every social service centre to identify people with excessive gambling habits.
Professor David Chan, Service Delivery and Research Sub-Committee, National Council on Problem Gambling said: "There is a need to make sure that these services are integrated, that individuals that come and seek help are properly referred. Sometimes individuals with problems don't come to seek help, and the challenge is how then for us to reach out to these individuals."
Over 250 social service staff have already been trained to identify problem gamblers in the past two years. But the council feels that this is not enough.
The council says the issue of problem gambling is still relatively unexplored, not just in Singapore but in other parts of the world.
So for the past two years, the council has been working to plug the information gaps.
Currently, an International Advisory Panel is being formed to beef up the council's expertise in research, service delivery and prevention measures.
More details are expected to be announced in the next two months and young people will continue to be the council's focus. That is why it hopes to include problem gambling as part of the school curriculum.
Debra Soon, Youth Sub-Committee, National Council on Problem Gambling, said: "We know from our informal feedback that certain schools would have used the impending opening of the integrated resorts as a topic for discussion and we'd like to be able to see whether or not we can work with schools to get more of these topics in."
The council begins its second two-year term with five new members.
While it is optimistic of the progress made so far, it says it will get a better feel of how it has performed when results of its annual survey on public attitudes towards gambling are released in the coming months. - CNA/ch
In a typical singaporean chinese family, nearly everyone will gather to gamble during chinese new yr. I've young cousins as young as 6yrs old who knows how to play blackjack and even Daidee(Big2)!
In my opinion, it's not really a bad thing if you think about it. If your children are trained to take calculated risk when they are young, more then often they'll grow up to be more prudent with their money. Some might even hate the idea of gambling!
I feel that the National Council on Gambling Problem would only aid in helping people cope with the gambling urge but will never eradicate its root. Usually, gamblers are stubborn people and believe that they are able to beat the odds, therefore refusing to accept losses and hoping to recoup what they have lost.
Losing is never the worse demon, winning is. Reason being: when people win or make a big amount of fortune from gambling, there's a tendency that they get overconfident and think that they are good in the game and naturally able to beat the odds. And when they suddenly suffer a minor setback, they get emotional by refusing to accept defeat and pray to god and hope that luck will be on their side in the next bet. More then often, they often end up losing their pants and/or end up with piling debts.
I think one of the council's biggest challenge is tackling the issue of illegal money lending(loanshark) to minimise the risk exposure of individuals and their family members. However, educating the young maybe a foundamental way in reducing the social impact.
There's only so much the council is able to do even if singapore doesnt open up the casinos, i do believe there're so many illegal means to fix their gambling urge in and out of singapore.
Well i guess we will have to wait for the IR to be ready to be able to see the impact. Gambling is all about risk and money management. I see everything in life as a gamble as every decision you make in life doesnt always make u a winner. Losing teaches you to accept a whole new experience in life.
So 1 question to ask yourself, Does investment = gambling?
I guess its just a thinline that divides them.
