Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JAPAN AUG 2019 74 FEATURES basically do two things, casino gambling or soccer betting. Together they make up almost 90%. OG: What unique challenges does Macau face in combatting problem gambling? DF: There is one big challenge in Macau, which is school. Schools, frankly speaking, are quite conservative regarding responsible gambling initiatives. They don't want to directly promote responsible gambling because from the schools’ perspective there is no gambling at all. That’s why it’s very difficult for us to promote responsible gambling before students leave the school, which leaves a gap. Then, after they turn 21, they have a lot of curiosity, there are a lot of casinos, they go inside and can lose control. We are trying to overcome these obstacles. We have developed some teaching materials so that each year schools can have one class to teach students about the value of money, the value of assets and the value of gambling at the end. Principals accept this idea because instead of promoting responsible gambling directly, we focus on understanding values. OG: We are seeing the local gaming market slowly evolve from a VIP-centric environment to a mass market one. Is this process being reflected in the problem gambling figures? Is there any distinction between VIPs and mass players in terms of problem gambling? DF: We actually can’t find any statistical significance