A survey by Singapore’s National Council on Problem Gambling has found that the percentage of Singapore residents categorized as probable problem gamblers has grown slightly over the past three years, but that the increase is “statistically insignificant” with rates effectively remaining stable.
Conducted once every three years, the “Survey on Participation in Gambling Activities Among Singapore Residents 2017” found that 0.8% of respondents could be classified probable problem gamblers, compared with 0.5% in 2014. Those considered probably pathological gamblers fell from 0.2% three years earlier to 0.1% in 2017.
The figures are particularly significant when compared with National Council on Problem Gambling’s first survey in 2005, five years before the city’s two casino resorts – Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa – were opened. As reported by The Straits Times, the rate of those suffering from either problem or pathological gambling was 4.1% in 2005 and has fallen every year since, to 2.9% in 2008, 2.6% in 2011 and 0.7% in 2014.
While there was minimal change in problem gambling behavior since the previous survey, the number of people to have participated in at least one form of gambling over the last 12 months jumped eight percentage points to 52%, due primarily to increased participation among Singapore’s Chinese community and for its three most common gambling activities – 4D, Toto and Social Gambling.
Residents with Chinese ethnicity comprised 62% of those who gambled, up from 53% in 2014. By gender, 58% of men and 48% of women said they had gambled in the last 12 months compared with 49% of men and 39% of women in 2014.
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