Teenagers raking up large debts after using them to place bets in Euro 2016

JOHOR BARU: Take a better look at your credit card bills, especially if the amount has gone up.

Your child could have used it to gamble online in the on-going UEFA Euro football championship.

Rev Jimmy Tan, who runs a rehabilitation programme for gamblers, said that teenagers as young as 13 had been racking up debts of about RM100,000 due to gambling.

“With the Internet and smartphones, gambling is very easy.”

“There are also gangs which recruit students as agents to put peer pressure on other students to get them hooked on gambling. For each recruit, the agent gets RM200 which is then used to buy gadgets and mobile phones,” he said in an interview.

Once a student has been recruited, he is given a link to a website and the log-in.

“All the student has to do is key in his parents’ credit card number and start gambling,” he said, adding that students who run out of money would then get funds from loan sharks.

Tan, who runs the Hope Rehab Centre for Problem Gamblers with his wife Rev Serena Sitoh, voiced concerns about the month-long Euro 2016 which ends on July 11.

“In the final leg, the gambling will be intense. Many people will be heavily involved in it by borrowing from loan sharks,” he said.

Gambling centres with gaming machines were also a problem, he added.

Tan, who previously helped to rehabilitate gamblers in Macau and Hong Kong, said he had seen many lives and relationship destroyed.

“My wife and I were part of a team of people who worked in a centre, counselling 5,000 gamblers for about 10 years there,” he said.

Tan said he wanted to give gamblers a second chance after his own experience with family members who were hooked on gambling.

“We came back to Malaysia in September 2013 and started this centre. So far, we have taken in 60 people aged 13 to 79,” he said, adding that the programme was free.

Tan said that it was not an easy task to rehabilitate gamblers as chances of the person going back to his habit were high if he was not monitored.

They would hold activities and have group-sharing sessions for them, he said.

Asked about funds to run the centre and programmes, he said it was sourced on their own but they welcomed donations from the public.

They can be reached at: hoperehabjb.wordpress.com or [e-mail]