Casino gamblers are not concerned about the warnings of responsible gambling or the dangers that come with gambling. A study conducted by Michael O’Neil from the University of Adelaide revealed this. Professor O’Neil indicated on his report that although there are laws and policies that intend to encourage the 13 land-based casinos in Australia to implement gambling policies, no one is really holding them to account.
Professor O’Neil was quoted saying; “There are some practices of casinos that some might say don’t fit with responsible gambling service”. He reiterates that the practices are not particularly fail safe. The associate professor said people spend a lot of money on casinos and instead of retreating after losing, the establishments entice them with credit points to continue playing. According to him, the casinos do not practise what they preach as they always advertise responsible gambling yet they do the opposite.
Prof O‘Neil lamented the lack of visible evidence indicating the effectiveness of responsible gambling that is meant to prevent excessive gambling. The study further reveals that people get offered private rooms for smoking and in the event of a problem with a gambler, the staff in Sydney only intervene after the person has been playing for over 24 hours .
Casinos causing an increase in crime?
Many casinos usually operate for about 24 hours a day and have huge numbers of people going in on a daily basis. This based on O’Neil’s study, pulls people into crime after they have lost their money. The criminals know for sure that majority of people going in or out of the casino resorts have money on them. As per the Prof O’Neil’s study, the large number of liquor outlets on the vicinity of the Casinos is alarming as people usually get to spend most, if not all their winnings on alcohol.
Based on the study, most gamblers are likely to be males under the age of 35 with a good educational background and a good income. The problem with these demographic group is that they are supposed to be helping the Australian economy yet they spend their income in casino, some of which are not even Australian-owned. This is also the demographic most likely to be at risk of problem gambling. The second demographic that is mostly noted on casino machines is the older females aged between 45 and 70. Usually on a social standing, this is the group that is the backbone of the family and taking care of everything yet they are seen involved in gambling and most of them end up as victims of crime.
The Herald Sun recently wrote an article about the dangers of gambling and its link to the organised crime in the Australian Football League AFL. The article revealed the efforts by the AFL to curb gambling among the personnel, this inclusive of players but still the crimes have not stopped. This has also leaked onto the match-fixing scandals taking place throughout the sports industry.
