Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING MARCH 2018 34 AWS: What about age group? DF: The average age is 40-something although the latest data is indicating a slightly younger age. AWS: It was recently proposed that dealers in Macau be banned from playing in any property, not just their own company’s properties. What is the state of play in regard to that proposal and what are your views? DF: I support this initiative because in Macau there is a very special occupational risk. Almost 95% of GGR in Macau is contributed by table games versus 40% in Las Vegas. This means that most of the dealers actually deal for almost eight hours a day. From my understanding, if people are involved with gambling activities for too long there will be a higher risk of their getting addicted. You may ask if there is any evidence to show such prevalence? From our last four surveys, the prevalence rate for dealers is a little bit higher than for the general population. However, as a scholar I would like to say it’s only a matter of time, because so many of them get involved. Another indicator is that the casino gaming participation rate of the general population today is around 12%, but for dealers it is almost double. AWS: Is the increased risk to dealers enough to justify banning all dealers in Macau from entering all casinos? DF: I think in this situation, we cannot say there’s just a small group of dealers, because those dealers with a gambling problem may actually influence their friends and other dealers around them. You can interview some dealers and ask them a very simple question: in the last several years, were there any instances where your friends who are dealers borrowed money from you? You can ask and it will be high. AWS: Do you have a raw number for how many people were treated for problem gambling or a gambling disorder in Macau in the last few years? DF: 15,000 people a year. But this may not really be per year because there is a cumulative effect. Your problem gambler today can still be your problem gambler next year. Only 1% of them seek help. AWS: What proportion of problem gamblers see their issues escalate to very serious levels? DF: Based on our survey, 30% to 40% of problem gamblers have actually thought about committing suicide. AWS: It is now 10 years since the responsible gambling initiative in Macau started. How did it begin in the first place and what were the biggest challenges in the early days? DF: In the beginning, no one had heard about responsible gambling, including the legislative assembly members. The first time I presented the idea in public, I actually received a comment from a legislative assembly member asking, “Davis, are you promoting gambling using responsible gambling?” It was very difficult to persuade them. But now they accept it – and not just accept it, we actually found some people would like to use responsible gambling as part of being a responsible government. It was also difficult at the start to convince casino operators. At the very beginning they would say, “Davis, you are going to kill us” when I promoted responsible gambling. But there has been no negative impact on GGR. They understand we’re helping companies solve the problem – less people getting addicted means less crime associated with gambling. Why do we say this? In 2003 and 2007 we actually took some statistics. We have 10 criteria. If a guy fulfills any of those 10 criteria, I can guarantee, 99%, that the person is a problem gambler. So now casino operators provide dealer training on responsible gambling not just at orientation but every two years. They have refresher training. Just recently I visited Galaxy, who provide online training to everybody. I attended the orientation for 45 minutes where they demonstrated the interaction between the program and the dealers. I can say it’s quite effective. They don’t just train their staff but also use information technology to help the dealer FEATURE IN FOCUS