ON BEHALF of the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), I
apologise to Mr Richard Ho for the poor response he received when
he called our helpline ('Casino exclusion: Family frustrated by red
tape'; last Saturday).
I understand his deep concern that one of his family members has
fallen prey to problem gambling.
Mr Ho has highlighted that his family member turned aggressive
when the family warned him that they would apply to enrol him in
the family exclusion scheme.
Indeed, it is precisely because of the family tension and
conflict that accompanies every single application for a family
exclusion order that we had designed the workflow to start with a
family conference with trained and experienced counsellors.
Over the past few months, we have been working with Tanjong
Pagar Family Service Centre - the centre that receives family
casino exclusion applications - to review the application
process.
We have since decided that while we must try to help families
manage the tensions and conflict from an application for family
exclusion, we must also bear in mind the great urgency felt by such
a family to put an immediate stop to the gambling.
Therefore, we will change our workflow such that all
applications will be heard by NCPG while Tanjong Pagar Family
Service Centre will concurrently try to encourage families to work
through the often complex and difficult family issues that problem
gambling would have caused.
Mr Ho had stated that he was informed that there were more than
300 applications still waiting to be processed. There are, in fact,
73 cases which the council will hear this month.
I thank Mr Ho for highlighting the difficulties in the
implementation of family exclusion applications. Remedial measures
have been taken.
Lim Hock San
Chairman
National Council on Problem Gambling
