Gambling addiction hard to beat

Chasing the elusive win: ‘Gamblers think that the next time they go back to gambling, their problems will disappear.’ — The Straits Times/ANN

BETWEEN 2020 and 2022, the number of problem gamblers seeking help from different agencies in Singapore numbered from about 800 to 1,000 each year. Around half of those who made a declaration had participated in illegal online gambling.

These figures, shared by Sim Gim Guan, the chairman of Singapore’s National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), took into account cases seen by Resilienz Clinic and the Institute of Mental Health’s National Addictions Management Service, as well as community-based social service agencies.