RUNNING THE RISK
How the media and other parties are guilty of normalising gambling
It was a most frightening night for Dokkaew* when she was blindfolded and thrown into the back of a van after being dragged out of a nightclub. It was the longest ride in her life when she was forced to stay in the countryside until the break of dawn. Although she couldn’t stop crying, she knew perfectly well why she was abducted.
Later Dokkaew was allowed to make a phone call. She chose to phone her “boss”, who guaranteed she would never miss another payment.
Dokkaew made a living as a football gambler. On her bad days, she lost many bets. Since she didn’t have money to pay her debts, she was threatened with kidnapping. The 40-year-old former gambler said that she decided to come clean after she realised that her friends and bosses who had been in this dark circle either died mysteriously or went to jail. Along the way, she met others who had quit gambling and now led better lives.
The story of Dokkaew was told by herself at a recent seminar titled “Help Me I’m Trapped”, organised by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation. The seminar aimed to tackle gambling, one of Thailand’s ongoing significant social issues, and how people can curb the activity.
From statistics, many Thais are involved with gambling. In 2017, the Centre for Gambling Studies conducted a survey on around 7,000 people aged over 15 in 25 provinces. The study found that three in four people used to gamble. Based on the survey’s findings, an estimate of 75% of the studied subjects — an equivalent of around 39 million Thais — gamble.
Speaking of gambling by type, Thais are most familiar with the state lottery, followed by the underground lottery, card games and football gambling. Almost 40% of all studied subjects started gambling at the age of 16-20 years, or when they were in high school and university.
Most gamblers started off with the underground lottery and state lotteries. Factors that attributed to their gambling behaviours include curiosity, the desire for money, and pure entertainment.
At the seminar, a representative of No Gambling Club Nattapong Sompaokaew said Thais are often raised in an environment where they are exposed to gambling. He gave examples of childhood games at temple fairs, such as darts, that encourage players to pay until they win a doll or a prize. “Gambling is easily accessible,” he said. “When we eat out, vendors approach us to offer lotteries right at the dining table. Many parents don’t realise that they themselves lead their children to gambling because some of them play the underground lottery or games at temple fairs.
“Since parents consider playing the lottery an entertainment, their children aren’t going to think the lottery is bad,” Nattapong added. “Some young people even think gambling is cool. I’m worried because the government also boosts gambling by holding several kinds of lottery.”
Not only do parents and the government give people more exposure to gambling; media outlets at times also convince people to gamble. Assoc Prof Nitta Roonkaseam, from the Institute of Research and Development for Public Enterprises (IRDP) at Phranakhon Rajabhat University, explained that through their content the media provide information with regard to lottery-number guessing and so forth.
“Many times there is coverage about weird animals such as a two-headed lizard or trees with unusual shapes in order to associate them with lottery numbers. Some news outlets encourage gambling by posting information about results of lottery numbers in Thailand, Laos and Indonesia,” the deputy director of IRDP said.
“The ways media present or highlight the lottery in the news have turned the lottery, or gambling, into a significant issue. The lottery is usually associated with the Thai term prung nee ruai [you’ll be rich tomorrow], which encourages people to feel that their money can be multiplied into thousands or millions if they gamble or buy a lottery ticket.”
However, most gamblers do realise the negative side of their behaviour. According to a 2017 study conducted by the Centre for Gambling Studies, almost 85% of subjects studied realised that gambling was the cause of debt. Around 72% were aware that they gambled because they wanted to get rich. The Research Centre for Social and Business Development found that the number of people who believed gambling could turn them into millionaires overnight increased from 23.9% in 2015 to 29.6% in 2017. And the number of people who gambled for a living doubled from 9.8% to 16.7% within a period of only two years.
Thanakorn Komkris of the Stop Gambling Foundation doesn’t think financial loss is the only consequence of gambling. Gamblers also waste their time, and their addiction could potentially wreak havoc on family relationships and personal credibility.
Yet there are a lot of gamblers who still have misconceptions about gambling.
“Many people think they can win easily,” he added. “Some gamblers believe if they purchase lotteries at a specific vendor, they will win. Some think that if their neighbours win this time, next time it could be their turn because it means the prizes come close to their neighbourhood. Some consider gambling an investment, so they must earn what they invest. They don’t understand that gambling is a risk rather than an investment.”
To stop people — especially the young generation — from gambling, raising awareness about the unwanted consequences of gambling alone will never work. Nitta suggested that in the social-media era, every media platform is full of user-generated content. Therefore, to prevent people from gambling, the public should start with themselves by not producing or posting on social media any content that supports the lottery or gambling in any way.
“Let’s stop posting, forwarding and sharing any content associated with gambling. If such content disappears from the media, gambling will become unusual. We can also report to Facebook as well as other social-network platforms if we see any content about gambling online. And media outlets should do more coverage about people whose lives are sabotaged by gambling, so the audience won’t see only the bright side of it,” Nitta recommended.
Thanakorn urged the government to do their part in handling the issue as well.
“The government should come up with measures to control lottery and gambling,” concluded Thanakorn. “Zoning might be carried out to restrict lottery and gambling areas. The state should not entice people with big prizes, should stop promoting the lottery and stop targeting minors.”
Many people don’t understand that gambling is a risk rather than an investment
* Not her real name.