Ex-gambling addicts tell their stories in new book "Broken By Gambling, Reconciled In Hope"

Straits Times, Apr 8, 2011

Ex-gambling addicts tell their stories in new book

By Theresa Tan

PAULINE lived in fear that her gambler husband, who had stolen money from two companies to pay his debts and was jailed once for embezzlement, would kill himself and his family to end all their misery.

The sub-contractor was hooked on jackpot machines, soccer bets and 4-D, betting up to $1,000 a week on 4-D alone. At his lowest, he owed about 20 loan sharks over $40,000, and banks and relatives another $100,000.

The father of two boys had often expressed thoughts of suicide. When Pauline, a 39-year-old clerk, showed him a newspaper article of a gambler who had killed his wife and their two children, before jumping to his own death in 2005, and asked him pointedly: 'You are not going to do this to us, are you?', his only response was a wry smile.

In desperation, she dragged him to a support group run by the One Hope Centre, a Christian group that helps gambling addicts and their families. Through counselling and witnessing how others managed to rebuild their lives, the 41-year-old, now a cabby, has broken free of his addiction.

These and 14 other real-life accounts of how gamblers kicked the habit have been compiled in a new bilingual book, Broken By Gambling, Reconciled In Hope. Published by the One Hope Centre and written by Lianhe Wanbao correspondent Woon Wei Jong, 38, it is on sale for $10 at major bookshops, such as MPH and Times Bookstores.

Of the book, Pastor Tan Lye Keng, the centre's 57-year-old executive director, said: 'We want to tell people that there is still hope, that people can stop gambling and mend their family relationships. Most of the gamblers we see are hopeless, desperate and suicidal. And some have tried to kill themselves.'

With two casinos in Singapore and more gamblers asking for its help, he said the centre wants to raise awareness of the pitfalls of gambling. The two support groups it runs weekly now see about 60 to 70 people per session, up from 40 to 50 before the casinos opened.

Gambling is not a 'play-play thing', as many people view it, but a menace that can destroy your life, he added. Those who learnt this the hard way include high-flying professionals and a top student who had to quit school to work to pay off his gambling debts, who was featured in the book.

The former gifted education programme student, now in his 20s, was known to his friends as the 'Teenage God of Gamblers'. He picked up online soccer betting in Secondary 3. He graduated to online casino games and lost more than $100,000 in a year.

Soon his mounting losses made him resort to loan sharks, and he had to quit school to work to pay them off. In desperation, he stole from his company, got caught, wrote a suicide note and prepared to end his life. Fortunately, his father stepped in as he was about to step off the ledge.

After counselling at the One Hope Centre, he realised he did not want to 'squander his youth' away. Now in the Air Force, he shared his story to warn other young people about the dangers of online gambling.

With the two casinos a short ride away, Pastor Tan said he is also concerned over the growing number of retirees and housewives - who were not gamblers to start with but got hooked after visiting the casino 'for fun'.

The Institute of Mental Health, which treats gambling addicts, says it is seeing more gamblers seeking help. Its latest figures, which are for the financial year ended March 2010, saw 217 new gamblers, three times the number - 71 - two years before that.

However, with those figures, it is probably too soon to examine the casinos' impact given that Resorts World Sentosa opened only in February last year, while Marina Bay Sands' soft-launch was in April last year.