A study on gambling prevalence conducted by local scholars has shown that a middle-aged Chinese man who is self-employed, separated/widowed/divorced, and living alone has a high probability of being a problem gambler, “probably due to his financial and family’s independent status with some years of casino gambling experience.”
The study titled “Profiling of Gamblers and Problem Gamblers Among Casino Patrons in Macao SAR” conducted by Wai Ming To and Gui-Hai Huang of the Macao Polytechnic University, was recently published by Springer, a global publisher that serves the research community.
The study found that traits such as a respondent’s marital status being separated/widowed/divorced, living alone, being aged between 35 and 54 years, and being Buddhist, significantly affected their gambling behaviors.
“While the association between Buddhism and problem gambling seems a bit surprising, it can be explained that Chinese men who are influenced by Confucianism and Buddhism see gambling including casino gambling to be a socially reinforced activity and a way of testing one’s luck and fate,” the study noted.
The survey obtained responses from 1,352 casino patrons in Macau.
Results showed that about one-third of the respondents were local residents, while 50% of the respondents were from mainland China.
The respondents indicated that they had gambled in casinos at least once in the past 12 months. Over 90% (1,228) of the respondents reported that they gambled in Macau’s casinos and slot lounges. The three most popular forms of casino gambling were baccarat, Sic Bo, and slot machines.
As cited in the report, the monthly median expenditure on gambling was HKD1,845 with a range from HKD2 to HKD375,175.
“In terms of the frequency, duration, and monthly expenditure on gambling, the study’s results showed that the median frequency of gambling was 24 times a year, the median duration of each gambling session was three hours and the median monthly expenditure on gambling was HKD 1,845,” the scholars noted.
The median monthly expense on gambling was around 3.6 times higher than the mean betting amount of HKD400 per month reported in a study conducted in 2005.
“The study’s results showed that the problem and pathological gambling prevalence rates of the “original” (i.e. unweighted) sample were 21.3% and 16.4%, respectively. In other words, the overall rate of problem and pathological gambling was 37.4%,” the scholars added.
It added that slightly over one in every five Macau’s casino patrons were problem gamblers.
Meanwhile, the researchers also called on future researchers to explore whether and how Macau’s secondary and tertiary prevention measures have effects on local and non-local casino patrons’ problem gambling behaviors.
