The figures, revealed by Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing in Parliament yesterday, showed that as of Sept 30, 22,700 of the 29,000 self-exclusion orders came from foreigners.
There were 750 family exclusion orders and 28,600 third-party exclusions - which include undischarged bankrupts and people receiving financial aid from the Government - in force up to Sept 30.
Singaporeans and permanent residents form the majority of family exclusion orders and third-party exclusions.
Mr Chan, who is also Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, was responding to Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Member of Parliament (MP) Christopher de Souza's questions on whether the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) and voluntary welfare organisations have seen a rise in the number of people seeking help for casino-related cases.
When contacted later, Mr Charles Lee, who is in charge of problem gambling counselling at Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre, said that there could be many reasons that there were more foreigners than Singaporeans applying for the self-exclusion orders.
"Foreigners may not have their families here with them so they have to apply for self-exclusion," he said.
Another reason could be because employers have asked their foreign workers to apply for self-exclusion as a condition for their employment.
Earlier this year, NCPG sent letters to employers of domestic workers and foreign workers detailing how they could help their workers apply for self-exclusion online or via snail mail.
This was to raise awareness among the two groups of workers that they, too, can sign up for self-exclusion.
Media reports suggest that many of these applications were made only after employers insisted that the workers do so.
It is understood that most of the applications for foreign worker self-exclusion came from the construction, recruitment, engineering, manufacturing and distribution industries.
Mr de Souza also noted that applying for self-exclusion requires a sense of discipline on the part of a person to say he or she does not want to gamble any more.
He said: "Some addicts do not have that discipline. Nor do people who are attracted to the lure of gambling."
He then asked what could be done to deter or reduce the lure of gambling rather than be over-reliant on self-exclusions.
In his reply, Mr Chan said that it was important for those with gambling problems to get support, especially from friends and family members.
If anyone showed signs of being troubled by gambling-related issues, people close to the person should encourage him or her to seek help as soon as possible.
Mr Chan added that his ministry is looking into ways to educate the public on how to detect signs of problem-gambling among their family members, friends or colleagues.
But it may not be possible to eradicate gambling completely.
Mr Chan said that two gambling participation surveys in 2005 and 2008 indicated that both probable pathological and problem gambling rates among Singapore residents are between 1 and 2 per cent.
Nonetheless, NCPG will continue to strengthen gambling counselling and help services.
It is also looking into providing a wider range of services in terms of integrated credit, legal and financial advisory services.
Said Mr Chan: "The integrated services will better equip families to minimise the harm - especially financial harm - from heavy gambling as well as problem gambling.
"My ministry will continue to closely monitor to ensure the efficacy of the existing social safeguards.
"We are prepared to strengthen the safeguards if necessary, especially to protect the vulnerable groups in our society."
Mr Low Thia Khiang (Aljunied GRC) also wanted to know whether the opening of the two casinos in Singapore last year led to a rise in the number of people turning to loan sharks or illegal moneylenders.
No, replied Mr S Iswaran, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.
Mr Iswaran, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade and Industry, said that there were 10,439 police reports made in relation to unlicensed moneylending and harassment in the first nine months of this year.
This is a drop of about 3,200 cases or 24 per cent compared to the same period last year.
ledtan@sph.com.sg
This article was first published in The New Paper.
- Ref:asiaone-Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone
No comments:
Post a Comment