Today, the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) of Singapore published its report of gambling participation survey among the local residents in 2017. According to the data provided by the organization, the percentage of people who participated in gambling activities over the last year in the country has increased in comparison to the one reported three years ago.
As revealed by the Council, the major goals of the survey were to make an assessment of the gambling activities’ scope and pattern among the adult Singaporeans and also to find out more about prevalence of problem gambling in order to make the profile of gambling addicts. As did the survey in 2014, the one in 2017 classified the respondents, who took part in at least one form of gambling over the last 12 months, as gamblers.
The National Council on Problem Gambling revealed that more than half of the Singapore adult residents revealed that they had participated in at least one form of gambling activity over the last 12 months. The percentage of adult gamblers increased from 44% in 2014 to 52% in 2017, with the increase being favoured by the rise in gambling among Chinese customers and the ones engaged in Social Gambling, Toto and 4D. In spite of the increase, the NCPG revealed that the figures registered remained relatively stable in the past 12 years after the inaugural gambling participation survey was held in 2005.
The last decade saw a certain decline in the gambling participation figures reported by the National Council on Problem Gambling of Singapore. The survey is carried out every three years and involves 3,000 participants.
At the time when the first-ever survey of local adult residents’ participation in gambling activities was held, the rate amounted to 58%. Three years later, in 2008, a 4% decline to 54% was marked, while 2011 saw a massive decline of 7% in gambling participation rates to 47%. The trend continued in 2014, too, when the rate amounted to 44%.
Having that in mind, the 8% increase to 52% in 2017 is a trend that is definitely worth paying attention to.
Player Profile and Preferred Gambling Activities
The gambling participation survey also brought more light to the demographic groups involved in gambling activities in the country. Chinese customers were mostly involved in gambling participation in 2017, with 62% of the survey respondents revealing they have gambled in the last 12 months. In addition, gambling was among the most-preferred pastime activities of male players (58%), as well as of adult residents aged 40 and above (58%).
As far as the type of the preferred gambling activities are concerned, the 2017 survey made it clear which the most popular types of gambling activities were. The National Council on Problem Gambling found out that 4D gambling activities were most preferred by Singapore customers, with 42% of the survey respondents revealing they have placed a bet on such games in the last 12 months. Toto gambling was next, with 36% of the players placing a bet with it, followed by Social Gambling (21%) and Singapore Sweep (18%).
Despite an increase in Singapore gambling participation rates was registered, this turned out to be in line with global gambling participation rates. The rates registered in Hong Kong in 2016 amounted to 61.5%, while the ones in Macau were estimated to 51.5%. Another large regulated market, the one of the UK, marked a gambling participation rate of 48%.
As reported by the Council, the number of physical help centres across the territory of the country has increased from two to six over the last two years. The Singapore’ NCPG further revealed that new counselling service available to local players over the phone and online was officially unveiled in July 2017.
Unfortunately, the number of calls and webchats to the National Problem Gambling Helpline suffered a decline, reaching its lowest rate of 19,628 in five years. In comparison, an overall number of 23,994 calls and webchats to the Helpline was registered in 2014.
