More than 30 per cent of Hong Kong students plan to bet on the Euro football championships and expect to play for bigger stakes, a pre-tournament survey has shown.
Gambling addiction help service the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals’ Even Centre said almost a third of respondents said their stakes would be three times higher than usual over the contest, to be held in Germany.
Thirty-one per cent of them said the amounts gambled would go up from about HK$100 to HK$300 (US$38) over Euro 24, which kicks off in Munich on June 14 and ends with the Berlin final on July 14.
Illegal online gambling platforms have already kicked off a marketing blitz in the run-up to the tournament.
“We have concluded that teenagers are not aware of the risks of illegal bookmaking while gambling brings more excitement to them,” Ching Fung-yee, a clinical psychologist at the Even Centre, said.
Brenda Chung Yin-ting, a senior section manager for youth & family services at the hospitals group, appealed to parents to teach their children the value of money and stop them picking up the gambling habit at a young age.
Chung said the centre would go into extra time to provide more services and that schools and local communities could help by providing activities designed to reinforce the message that there was a downside to gambling.
“The centre will extend its hotline services from 2 July and people will be able to seek help especially over the period of the tournament,” Chung said.
We will also provide counselling services for them if necessary.”
The Even Centre polled 751 students aged between 15 and 30 at school or tertiary education between March and April.
The survey also found that about 20 per cent of respondents started to gamble before they turned 18 and that some even picked up the habit at primary school.
About 44 per cent said that they would enjoy the spectacle of the tournament more if they had money on the results.
Another 20 per cent said that they were confident they could predict the results of the games.
A former gambler, identified only as Tak, agreed to help the centre underline the dangers of out-of-control gambling.
Tak said he started to gamble while still in secondary school and he spiralled downwards into addiction.
“I once bet HK$100,000 for a big international game which brought me excitement,” Tak added.
He said his addiction took up all of his time, other than when he had to sleep, and his debts piled up.
“I even borrowed money from loan sharks, which took me years to pay off,” Tak added.
“I was embarrassed by my behaviour and decided to quit gambling.”
Tak admitted it was hard to break the cycle of addiction, but he managed with the support of his family.
Police earlier warned of a surge in illegal football betting and revealed that nearly 30,000 people were arrested between 2019 and 2023 for offences linked to unregulated gambling.
The force said it expected an increase in the number of illegal gambling cases over the Euros after a significant jump was recorded for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
