With gambling fever in Hong Kong elevated with the 2010 Word Cup, a new study shows that taxi drivers in the city are at serious risk of becoming compulsive gamblers, with 43 percent already afflicted or on the verge. That's believed to be the highest level risk among any occupational group.

Among 194 taxi drivers who were surveyed between the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, 55 of those surveyed were found to have more than five of the 20 recognized symptoms of a pathological gambler, indicating they were at high risk of developing a compulsion to wager. Among them, 56.8 percent usually gamble with friends, 36.7 percent of them gambled at their work place and 7 percent had thoughts of suicide to escape from gambling, according to the survey.

"Gambling not only hurt my self-respect, since I always lose, but it also hurt the feelings of my family, my relatives and my friends," says Wu Bing-qun, a former pathological gambler with 26 years of taxi driving experience, "It requires lots of determination to quit it."

Hong Kong awakened to the prevalence of gambling among taxi drivers when five local cabbies were arrested on suspicion that they were making book on the World Cup through illegal offshore gambling portals. Betting slips worth more than HK$10 million were seized two days before the tournament opened.

"Among all counseling cases, taxi drivers seemed most reluctant to ask for our help," says Wong Ho-shan, counselor of Sunshine Lutheran Centre. While the number of people seeking counseling for gambling addiction mushroomed 110 percent in June, only a handful of those seeking help have been taxi drivers, according to the counselor.

The Sunshine Lutheran Centre of Hong Kong, Lutheran Social Service (LC-HKS), a counseling center for problem and pathological gamblers, carried out the survey at the close of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. The hope was to create greater awareness among drivers of gambling problems and more importantly, to encourage more to seek help.

"Twelve-hours' work every day, different requirements of clients, ever-changing traffic conditions - all result in high work pressure; and gambling may be a way to escape from the reality," says To Sum-tong, director of the Taxi Driver Branch, Motor Transport Workers General Union.

Relatively high work pressure, flexible working hours, easy access to cash and a wide proliferation of information on the international football tournament are believed to act as major stimulants encouraging drivers to bet.

"It should not be the taxi drivers to be blamed," says Tang Kam-piu, assistant executive director of LC-HKS. "More support from the government and society is urgently needed."

China Daily

(HK Edition 07/06/2010 page1)