23-10-2010, 06:42 AM
I think if more people found other passions in their lives - be it music, movies, sports or even investing; then they would not even bother about the casinos!
Oct 23, 2010
the NEW CONVERTS
From curiosity to addiction
MR SELWYN Goh, 25, had never stepped into a casino until Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) opened.
After his first visit, however, the casino became his home for the next six weeks.
In March, the construction project coordinator accompanied a friend there out of curiosity. 'Our main motive was to go in, win some money, and leave. I bought a day levy and did not expect to keep returning.'
He withdrew $1,600 from his savings account and within seven hours, lost all of it on blackjack and tai sai, a dice game.
'I wanted to recover my loss so I went back the next day,' he says.
Except he lost more the following day. And a vicious circle formed: He would go in after work around 8pm, and play till the wee hours of the morning. At the end of two weeks, he had wiped out all his savings - a four-figure sum.
He recalls: 'I was broke but I was too scared to tell my parents.'
In his moment of despair, he received a call from a bank offering him a $10,000 credit line. He took it and resumed gambling, determined to recoup his lost savings.
As luck would have it, he began winning, first hundreds, then thousands of dollars.
The baby-faced polytechnic graduate says: 'I was on a winning streak so I kept playing until I could not tell night from day. I would even take leave from work to gamble.'
By then, he had bought an annual levy to enter the casino.
His longest record of continuous gambling was 19 hours straight, from 11pm to 6pm the next day. 'I did not sleep or eat. I had a few cups of coffee but mostly, it was adrenaline that kept me going,' he lets on. He won almost $15,000 in that marathon stint.
A few days later, he made a $40,000 windfall on a $300 bet. But the very next day, he lost more than half - $24,000 - in a bad hand.
The change in fortunes left him in shock - for a while. For the next few months, he gambled more cautiously - going to the casino no more than twice a week, betting no more than a few hundred each time.
But last month, he fell back into compulsive gambling again.
He says: 'On the last day of the lunar seventh month, I said my prayers at a temple before I went to the casino. That night, I won more than $100,000 on a $1,000 bet at the baccarat table.'
With his winnings, he managed to pay off his $10,000 bank loan. 'But the sad thing is, the addict in me drove me to keep on gambling. After about two weeks, I had lost almost $50,000 of my winnings.
'After what I have been through, I have been enlightened about gambling. What I win, I give back to the casino, there is no point in this.'
Although he is technically still in the black with a few thousand dollars, he is considering giving up gambling after seeing what has happened to some gamblers.
He says: 'An uncle I befriended at the baccarat table has not been answering my calls. He borrowed money from an ah long (loan shark) and I am afraid something has happened to him. I do not want to end up like him.'
Also, his own father, a heavy gambler who quit two years ago to keep the family from falling apart, has repeatedly warned him to stop. He says: 'I am trying my best to control myself without going to the extreme of applying for a self-exclusion order, but I think I will still have to get it, just not yet.'
Likewise, Mr Liu, 26, who owns an Internet marketing business, walked into his first casino when it opened here just to check it out.
Gambling has now become his 'dirty little secret'. He declines to give his full name as he does not want his parents and relatives to know about his habit. 'To them, gambling once a year during Chinese New Year is enough; any more and it is excessive.'
He has been to both casinos a total of seven times and he plays both pontoon and jackpot. He wagers up to $1,000 on each visit and leaves when he has used up all his allotted money, regardless of whether he has won or lost.
He says: 'I gamble for the cheap thrill of it, although it is not that cheap. But I do not drink, I do not club, this is my only other form of entertainment besides watching TV.'
Mr Max Koh, a senior counsellor at Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre, says novice gamblers tend to be in their 20s and visit casinos out of curiosity. 'On their first visit, they are usually with friends and their aim is to have a good time. But once they start losing money, they want to win it back and that is when they start to sink deeper into gambling,' he observes.
Those who find fulfilment in other areas of their lives tend to be better at controlling how much time and money they spend at the casinos. But those who treat gambling as a form of escape from other problems are at risk, he says.
HUANG LIJIE
Oct 23, 2010
the NEW CONVERTS
From curiosity to addiction
MR SELWYN Goh, 25, had never stepped into a casino until Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) opened.
After his first visit, however, the casino became his home for the next six weeks.
In March, the construction project coordinator accompanied a friend there out of curiosity. 'Our main motive was to go in, win some money, and leave. I bought a day levy and did not expect to keep returning.'
He withdrew $1,600 from his savings account and within seven hours, lost all of it on blackjack and tai sai, a dice game.
'I wanted to recover my loss so I went back the next day,' he says.
Except he lost more the following day. And a vicious circle formed: He would go in after work around 8pm, and play till the wee hours of the morning. At the end of two weeks, he had wiped out all his savings - a four-figure sum.
He recalls: 'I was broke but I was too scared to tell my parents.'
In his moment of despair, he received a call from a bank offering him a $10,000 credit line. He took it and resumed gambling, determined to recoup his lost savings.
As luck would have it, he began winning, first hundreds, then thousands of dollars.
The baby-faced polytechnic graduate says: 'I was on a winning streak so I kept playing until I could not tell night from day. I would even take leave from work to gamble.'
By then, he had bought an annual levy to enter the casino.
His longest record of continuous gambling was 19 hours straight, from 11pm to 6pm the next day. 'I did not sleep or eat. I had a few cups of coffee but mostly, it was adrenaline that kept me going,' he lets on. He won almost $15,000 in that marathon stint.
A few days later, he made a $40,000 windfall on a $300 bet. But the very next day, he lost more than half - $24,000 - in a bad hand.
The change in fortunes left him in shock - for a while. For the next few months, he gambled more cautiously - going to the casino no more than twice a week, betting no more than a few hundred each time.
But last month, he fell back into compulsive gambling again.
He says: 'On the last day of the lunar seventh month, I said my prayers at a temple before I went to the casino. That night, I won more than $100,000 on a $1,000 bet at the baccarat table.'
With his winnings, he managed to pay off his $10,000 bank loan. 'But the sad thing is, the addict in me drove me to keep on gambling. After about two weeks, I had lost almost $50,000 of my winnings.
'After what I have been through, I have been enlightened about gambling. What I win, I give back to the casino, there is no point in this.'
Although he is technically still in the black with a few thousand dollars, he is considering giving up gambling after seeing what has happened to some gamblers.
He says: 'An uncle I befriended at the baccarat table has not been answering my calls. He borrowed money from an ah long (loan shark) and I am afraid something has happened to him. I do not want to end up like him.'
Also, his own father, a heavy gambler who quit two years ago to keep the family from falling apart, has repeatedly warned him to stop. He says: 'I am trying my best to control myself without going to the extreme of applying for a self-exclusion order, but I think I will still have to get it, just not yet.'
Likewise, Mr Liu, 26, who owns an Internet marketing business, walked into his first casino when it opened here just to check it out.
Gambling has now become his 'dirty little secret'. He declines to give his full name as he does not want his parents and relatives to know about his habit. 'To them, gambling once a year during Chinese New Year is enough; any more and it is excessive.'
He has been to both casinos a total of seven times and he plays both pontoon and jackpot. He wagers up to $1,000 on each visit and leaves when he has used up all his allotted money, regardless of whether he has won or lost.
He says: 'I gamble for the cheap thrill of it, although it is not that cheap. But I do not drink, I do not club, this is my only other form of entertainment besides watching TV.'
Mr Max Koh, a senior counsellor at Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre, says novice gamblers tend to be in their 20s and visit casinos out of curiosity. 'On their first visit, they are usually with friends and their aim is to have a good time. But once they start losing money, they want to win it back and that is when they start to sink deeper into gambling,' he observes.
Those who find fulfilment in other areas of their lives tend to be better at controlling how much time and money they spend at the casinos. But those who treat gambling as a form of escape from other problems are at risk, he says.
HUANG LIJIE