Starting on Wednesday, residents aged 18 and over began receiving calls from the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming of the University of Macau, in the interests of elaborating upon a report for the Social Welfare Bureau on problem gambling in the territory, the Bureau announced in a press release.
Last year’s results of the study found 174 total cases of gambling addiction, of which 70 per cent of the individuals were male, with the majority between 30 and 39 years old, and 80 per cent residents, while 20 per cent were dealers in casinos.
This year, the study will focus on the amount of participation by residents in gaming activities, perception of gaming activities and gambling addiction as well as the rate of frequency of gambling addiction in the SAR. Information collected will be used ‘as reference for the planning and development of future services for the prevention and treatment of gambling addiction and to substantiate the objective of implementing scientific governance,’ notes the Bureau. The phone interviews will run until August 19.
The last annual results published showed that the primary reason for engaging in gaming activities was ‘financial difficulty’, despite the SAR having an unemployment rate for May amounting to 1.9 per cent and employees in the gaming sector making an average MOP21,630 per month in the fourth quarter of last year, according to data from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC). At the end of last year’s fourth quarter some 24,619 dealers were employed, of whom around 8,500 were male, DSEC data shows.