One of the associations representing gambling employees revealed that in 2023 it received 172 new cases of requests for help, of which 30 concerned the psychological and emotional problems of casino employees, and three cases involved serious mental disorders. The 30 cases constituted 17.44% of the total new applications, which saw an increase of almost eight percentage points compared to the 2022 number.

Pak Kin Pong, one of the leaders of the Macau Gaming Industry Employees Home, revealed that there is not just one stressor when seeking psychological help. In addition to issues related to work, “one’s own emotional state, the relationship with the spouse, or the education of children” also play a role.

However, Pak Kin Pong admitted that the pressure from work is really a determining factor. He highlighted that casinos are now more demanding “with employee performance, especially requiring higher quality customer service, and also having less tolerance for errors at work.

In the future, when tourism continues to increase, more gamblers will arrive, and we hope that gaming operators will organise courses to increase the competence of employees to face this development,” said Leong Sun Iok, another of the association’s managers.

It is known, from several studies, that “negative stress can become the killer of physical and mental health” or that if work stress can have a positive side (as a driving force for good performance and achievement of work), “negative stress can become the suicidal hand of modern people’s physical and mental health.” Other studies show that “work stress becomes an interactive factor related to work, so as to change or destroy the mental and physical status of workers and force them to deviate from normal operation.”

In the case of Macau, the experience of specialised health professionals allows us to conclude that here, gambling problems are often associated with other psychiatric disorders, and we can speak of a double diagnosis: “a problem of anxiety and depression associated with gambling addiction, for example.”

Gambling has yet another facet: what experts call the gambling addiction epidemic. A recent study by scholars from Macau and mainland universities revealed what can only be called as an alarming trend of problem gambling in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Of the 943 gamblers seeking assistance through local helplines, the majority originated in Macau (27.3 per cent followed by mainland China and 12.3 per cent from Hong Kong).

One of the most concerning trends is the level of debt among problem gamblers. The study revealed 73 per cent of those surveyed were in debt, with 9 per cent having debts exceeding MOP1 million (*). In Macau, 33 per cent of the gamblers had debts exceeding MOP200,000(*).

It is no wonder that a study by the Sheng Kung Hui Macau Association, in collaboration with the University of São José, showed that family members of individuals affected by gambling addiction disorder face strong financial pressure, in addition to the feeling of shame regarding the search for help, which led this community service institution to appeal to society to stop stigmatising players and their families.

According to the association, the spouse of a person with a gaming disorder often must face financial pressure and also has to take on family responsibilities, namely raising their children, making them feel “exhausted” and affecting their performance at work.

____________________

(*) one Macanese Pataca is equivalent to 547.73 COP`s or 0.12 us