More leave home to flee gambling debts

• Clivebenss

  27 Jun 11, 12:56

  Jun 27, 2011 - Straits Times

  Number seeking help to locate missing spouses triples so far this year

  By Elizabeth Soh

  
  

  ALICE Lim, 56, came home one day in March to find red and yellow paint splashed all over her door, and her husband?s belongings and passport gone from their bedroom.

  It was only then that she found out that her husband, Richard (not his real name), owed more than $150,000 to loansharks after chalking up debts in the past six months at the Resorts World casino. She is one of the increasing number of spouses whose husbands run away after losing and borrowing large amounts of money at the casinos. The Crime Library here says that they have been approached by 60 spouses this year - up from just 20 cases last year.

• Clivebenss

  28 Jun 11, 08:30

  casino is a problem.

• Clivebenss

  28 Jun 11, 08:32

  Jun 28, 2011 - ST Forum
  

  Family support best way to help gamblers

  WHILE I empathise with the plight of Madam Chia Guek Hong ('Nail-biting days of a gambler's wife'; last Friday), I wonder if a successful application for a family exclusion order really helps.

  My scepticism stems from the fact that a person who is banned from entering casinos here can visit those elsewhere, such as the ones in Genting. Besides the casinos, there is no dearth of gaming opportunities for habitual gamblers.

  This situation is akin to that of someone who is banned from smoking in air-conditioned premises, but does so in other open areas. Such measures do not help one to give up the unhealthy habit.

  Family support is the best way of helping someone with a gambling problem.

  Making him realise his weakness is one way to make a difference. Family members and loved ones can instil a feeling of guilt in the gambler, by making him feel uneasy about causing the family financial and emotional woes.

  Willpower can help one kick bad habits; no amount of legislation and exclusion orders really work.

  Jeffrey Law