The youth, who bet on all sorts of games, started gambling in his teens and his parents could not do anything to stop him, said Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre (FSC) senior counsellor Charles Lee.

The student is one of 14 people whose families have applied for them to be barred from the two casinos here. The first of them opens at the end of the year.

In the two months since families can apply to have their loved ones banned from gaming tables, close to 80 people have made enquiries with the Tanjong Pagar FSC on such 'family exclusion orders'.

However, only 14 families have gone beyond enquiring about these orders to sitting through interviews with counsellors to share how the gambler's actions have hurt them, before such exclusion orders are issued.

Most of the 14 gamblers are Chinese, male and aged between 31 and 60, the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) said yesterday.

In fact, only one is a Malay and two are women, leading the council to say that gambling addiction is still pretty much a problem among Chinese men.

And contrary to some stereotypes that such addicts are poorly educated, most of the 14 gamblers hold at least O-level or higher qualifications. However, about half of them earn nothing at all or less than $500 a month.

So why did only 14 families proceed to the second stage of the application process?

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.

theresat@sph.com.sg