45% of students have gambled at the youngest 8 years old

Almost 4 years earlier than Bianqing

The problem of gambling among young people in Hong Kong is serious and tends to be younger. Studies have found that 45% of students have participated in gambling, and nearly 90% of at-risk youths have money to gamble. What is even more shocking is that the average age of the first bet of students is 8.1 years old, which is 4 years younger than Bian Qing. Experts point out that 60% of young people gamble to kill time, and family members’ addiction to gambling also causes them to get bad habits. Research has also found that most young people linger in game console centers to gamble through games. Some young people have lost nearly HK$13,000 a day. In the end, the debt was over 200,000 yuan. Some members of the Legislative Council pointed out that the target customers of the machine shop are mainly young people, and the police need to rely on online reports or student reports to catch them all at once. I believe there will be certain difficulties in action.

This year, 19-year-old Henry (pseudonym) started gambling together and said bluntly that "every gambling must be played"; 3 years ago, he became addicted to the game console center, because the "fish catching machine" can exchange stored-value card points back to cash. Gambling money by "catching fish" all day long. After dropping out of Secondary Two, he even more frantically invested his salary in the "fish catching machine", bluntly saying that there is no trouble when gambling money; but the reality is cruel, he puts more time and money every day with more losses, and I believe that one day he will be able to Turning to the book, I played 16 hours a day, and the highest peak lost more than 10,000 Hong Kong dollars a day. "I lost my money blindly."

Henry lost his savings and borrowed money from a finance company. Later, he borrowed money from friends for gambling. He accumulated a debt of 250,000 Hong Kong dollars. The high debt caused him to be seriously troubled. Repay 10,000 Hong Kong dollars a month in debt, and do many part-time jobs, hoping to pay off the debt as soon as possible. He said frankly that young people should not try to gamble, "it is really going to die," and he regretted his original behavior.

The Youth Outreach Social Work Team of the Tai Po District of the Hong Kong Youth Service interviewed nearly 900 young people from October last year to March this year. Among them, 400 were students and the rest were at-risk youths. It was found that nearly 90% of the border youth had participated in gambling, while the students 45% of them had gambled; but the students were younger than the marginalized teenagers. The former bet on average 8.1 years old, and the latter was 11.7 years old. The four-pointers used to place bets through illegal bookmakers and often used games to gamble in game consoles. Among them, 13% were high-risk gamblers and pathological gamblers.

Social worker Zhou Yizhi believes that parents should lead by example and not encourage gambling. Schools and social workers should pay more attention to the situation of students and organize more activities to pass the time. At the same time, as students are getting younger and younger for first gambling, gambling prevention education should start in elementary school. It is also hoped that the police will step up inspections of game console centers to prevent young people from going astray.

Legislative Councillor Tu Jinshen pointed out that the current law has a certain level of supervision on gaming machine centers, and most gaming machines involved in gambling cannot be approved, but he said frankly that "in fact, gambling can be gambling," and it is basically difficult to ban it. He also pointed out that the police have certain difficulties in cracking down on illegal machinery, because the arrest of offenders requires someone to stolen and obtain them, but there are certain regular customers in the illegal machinery, and the "snake" police officers are too old and can easily be spotted. Tu bluntly said that the police may need to find younger-looking police officers or rely on students to report, otherwise it will be difficult to detect them.

[TW]

45%學生曾賭博最細8歲　比邊青還早近4年

香港青少年賭博問題嚴重，且有年輕化趨勢。有研究發現，45%學生曾參與賭博，邊緣青少年更近90%有賭錢；更令人震驚的是學生首次下注的平均年齡為8.1歲，竟較邊青還要年輕4歲。專家指出，60%青年賭錢是為了消磨時間，同時家庭成員賭博成癮亦導致他們染上惡習；研究亦發現大多年輕人流連於遊戲機中心透過遊戲賭博，有青年曾日輸近1.3萬港元，終至債台高築欠款20多萬。有立法會議員指，機舖的目標客戶以年輕人為主，警方需靠線報或學生舉報才可一網打盡，相信行動有一定困難。

今年19歲的Henry(化名)自中一起開始賭博，直言「逢賭必玩」；3年前開始沉迷於遊戲機中心，因「捉魚機」能將儲值卡積分兌換回現金，自此終日靠「捉魚」賭錢。中二輟學後，他更瘋狂地將薪金投放於「捉魚機」，直言賭錢時無煩惱；但現實是殘酷，輸多贏少的他每日投放更多時間和金錢，相信終有一日能翻本，更曾一日玩足16小時，最高峰一日輸掉萬多港元，「我簡直輸錢輸到盲目咗。」

Henry輸光積蓄便向財務公司借貸，其後更向朋友借錢賭博，累積欠債達25萬港元；債台高築令他嚴重困擾，突然醒覺不可長此下去，得社工勸解後，現時努力工作每月還債1萬港元，並做多份兼職希望盡快還清債務。他坦言年輕人不要嘗試賭博，「真係會死人㗎」，對當初的行為十分後悔。

香港青少年服務處大埔地區青少年外展社會工作隊，去年10月至今年3月訪問近900名青少年，當中400名為學生，其餘為邊緣青少年；發現近90%邊青曾參與賭博，學生則有45%曾賭錢；但學生首次下注年齡卻較邊緣青少年更年輕，前者平均8.1歲首次下注，後者則為11.7歲。四分一邊青曾透過非法莊家下注，亦常於遊戲機中心以遊戲賭博，當中有13%更是高危賭徒及病態賭徒。

社工周裔智認為家長應以身作則不要鼓勵賭錢，學校及社工亦要多關注學生情況，並多舉辦活動予學生打發時間。同時，由於學生首次賭博年齡愈來愈小，預防賭博教育應從小學開始，亦希望警方加強巡查遊戲機中心，以免青少年誤入歧途。

立法會議員涂謹申指，現時法例對遊戲機中心有一定監管，涉賭博的遊戲機大多不能獲批，但坦言「其實咩都可以賭」，基本上難以禁絕。他又指警方打擊違規機舖有一定困難，因拘捕違例人士需人贓並獲，但違規機舖有一定熟客，加上「放蛇」警員年紀過大，很容易被識破。涂直言警方或許需找外貌較年輕的學警，或依靠學生舉報，否則難以偵緝。