"When One Person is Addicted to  Gambling, the Whole Family Suffers" Promotion

Successful. NICOS Chinese Health Coalition's Problem Gambling Advertisement

Touched People's Heart. Gamblers Family Support Group Established To Help. 



World Journal

March 31, 2001



NICOS Chinese Health Coalition started  its promotion activities with this slogan in

order to raise the awareness of gambling problems among Chinese. Since February,

over fifty families and individuals came for help regarding gambling issues. NICOS

was comprised of  thirty health care providers and organizations. Since the past Chinese

New Year, NICOS has started advertising on major Chinese Newspapers, television

and radio programs. The advertisements would continue through June. The president

of NICOS, Evelyn Lee, commented during the press conference on March 30 that the

response to the promotion was excellent. On the newspaper ad, there was a skeleton

hand holding a playing card, along with the subtitle "Can you imagine losing all the money

that you work hard for, having your family broken, and being burdened by heavy debts?

If you want to quit gambling, or if you are frustrated because someone you know is addicted

to gambling, please call our Chinese helpline 1-800-968-7888." The content of the TV ad

was the same as  the Newspaper ad. There were both Cantonese and Mandarin versions,

and they were broadcast for 15 seconds on station 26 and station 66 respectively. As for the

radio ad, seven questions were raised. If your answer to any one of  the questions was

"yes", you were probably in trouble with gambling. These questions were, "Do you use

gambling as a way to escape problems or relieve depression?", "Do you feel unable to

stop playing, regardless of winning or losing?" , "Are you betting more than you intended

to?", "Have you neglected family or work responsibilities because of gambling?", "Have you

borrowed money from others in order to relieve a financial problem that arose due to

gambling?", "Do you feel restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling?"

and "Have you lost of jeopardized important relationships due to gambling?". Evelyn Lee

pointed out that Chinese culture was more receptive  to gambling than drinking or drug abuse.

Besides, a lot of Chinese movies used "gambling" as the subject matter, such as movies "The

Gambling King" and "The King of Swindlers", etc, which more or less encouraged gambling.

In addition, Chinese families thought of playing mahjong as a social activity  rather than a bad

habit, therefore gambling was very common among Chinese communities. According to a study,

70% of Chinese families thought that gambling was a big problem in the community. Clinical

Psychologist Dr. Eddie Chiu pointed out that one of the reasons why Chinese residences in San

Francisco were involved  in gambling was because of the lack of excitement in the lives of new

immigrants. Since they just came to the U.S., they did not understand anything about the 49ers;

but they found excitement and attention in casinos instead. In addition,  Reno and Las Vegas

casinos understood that Chinese like to gamble, so they held shows and invited stars from Hong

Kong and Taiwan every year to attract Chinese to their casinos. Gambling was really a big

problem among Chinese community. Sister Paulette Yeung from St. Mary Chinese Center

mentioned that Chinese had this deeply held belief that "shameful issues should be kept private

 in the family", therefore they were reluctant to say it even though they were suffering from

compulsive gambling problem of their family members. The establishment of the "gamblers

family support groups" provided a support system for gamblers' family members, so that

they could help and comfort each other. "Gamblers  family support group" were held at 910

Broadway, Chinatown. Every Sunday from 11am to 12:30pm or every Tuesday from

1pm to 2:30pm. Tel. #: (415) 929-4823.