Sheng Kung Hui’s 24-hour gambling counseling hotline and online counseling has recorded 1,007 cases of distress, a year-on-year increase of 4%, of which tourists accounted for about 40% from January to April this year.
Hotline director Lau Mei Yi said a Chinese medicine intervention pilot program was launched last month. It subsidized people troubled by gambling, as well as their family members, in receiving traditional Chinese medicine diagnoses and treatment services, and to learn about stress reduction methods.
It is hoped that, through Chinese medicine combined with psychological counseling, anxiety among participants in the program can be alleviated, Lau told TDM on the sidelines of an event yesterday.
Regarding illnesses such as depression and insomnia, if the trial results are satisfactory then it will be promoted to targeted members of the public in the second half of this year.
In addition, Lau recommended raising the public’s awareness of gambling addiction, as well as raising the awareness of gamblers’ family members in seeking help.
Recently, a study by local scholars showed the majority of frontline casino staff in Macau face various obstacles that impede their capacity to intervene effectively in problematic gaming behaviors – despite themselves comprehensively grasping responsible gambling principles.
A recent academic paper by Manian Wongkun and Liu Shuang from the Centre for Gaming and Tourism Studies at Macao Polytechnic University has highlighted that, amid responsible gaming campaigns hosted by the government and gaming operators, problem gambling has not been significantly reduced.
Also, most promotional efforts are primarily targeted towards Macau residents, neglecting non-resident gamblers.
It has also been inferred that problematic gambling may be more common among overseas gamblers.
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