Few 'problem gamblers'

2003-11-27 21:49

Donwald Pressly

Cape Town - Research conducted by the National Responsible Gambling Programme (NRGP), a public-private partnership of government and the gambling industry, found that just 5% of those with easy access to commercial gambling facilities gambled too much.

Speaking in Cape Town, the executive director of the national centre for the study of gambling at the University of Cape Town, Professor Peter Collins, said the NRGP had surveyed 5 816 South Africans living in urban areas "with easy access to commercial gambling".

It had found 270 respondents answered seven or more of the Gamblers Anonymous questions affirmatively, slightly up from about 3.8% in the last survey in 2001.

These people fell into the problem-gambling category, referring to the fact that they could not afford the activity.

However, only 0.7% had an addiction to gambling which was similar to alcoholism and drug addiction.

"This is broadly in line with comparable international jurisdictions in the English-speaking world such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States," Collins said.

The research suggested that 72% of people played the lottery regularly - once a week - up from 69.5% two years ago.

There had also been fairly significant growth in the number of people playing scratch cards - 15% - up from 12% in 2001.

Other forms of gambling showed a slight decline including slot machines at 14%, down from just over 19%.

Newspaper jackpots at 3.3% were down from 9.5% and horse racing at 5.7%, from 7.8% before. Table games in casinos "showed the most obvious decline from 4.9% to 1.4%."

Gambling more popular

The percentage of people who never gambled declined to just more than 20% from nearly 26% in 2001.

"This shows that gambling in South Africa has become more popular, a growth which has come principally from the lottery."

"Scratch cards are up both in overall and regular participation and other forms of gambling have declined obviously in the face of new competition."

He said overall the majority of South Africans gambled sensibly and the rise in problem gambling could largely be attributed to the national lottery.

Collins argued that problem gambling was best regulated, rather than dealt with by legislation.

He noted that various training programmes had been developed by the NRGP, involving helpline counsellors and facilitators including education, medical, clinical psychology or psychiatric trainers.

Casino staff were also being trained to identify problem gambling.

- I-Net Bridge (News24)