Nearly 60 percent of the 96 Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese participants are problem gamblers or pathological gamblers as the study by University of Connecticut put it in a new study research about Asians and gambling.
Nancy Petry, an associate professor of psychiatry at the UConn Health Center comments that such high rate of gambling problems is very disturbing. The study reports that around 2 percent of the overall adult population in the civilized world are pathological gamblers.
The reasons for this addiction could be explained by the trauma and pressures these refugees faced in their home-lands before fleeing and the lack of cultural bias against gambling among some Asians. Casinos like Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino have been quick to cash-in on this weakness. They run exclusive promotional campaigns targeted at the Asian communities in Boston and NY.
The study, published in the latest American Psychiatric Association’s journal discloses that more than 60 percent of participants wagered more than $100 on a typical gambling day, with 42 percent betting more than $500 in the two months.
The participant’s median annual salary was around $25,000 which is a large proportion of their earnings.
Theanvy Kuoch, one the researchers comments that these gamblers are using gambling and Casinos as ‘escapist means’ to escape from bitter memories and troubled past with an easy means to get rich-quick in a recreational way rather than taking the hard road again.@@
Nancy Petry, an associate professor of psychiatry at the UConn Health Center comments that such high rate of gambling problems is very disturbing. The study reports that around 2 percent of the overall adult population in the civilized world are pathological gamblers.
The reasons for this addiction could be explained by the trauma and pressures these refugees faced in their home-lands before fleeing and the lack of cultural bias against gambling among some Asians. Casinos like Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino have been quick to cash-in on this weakness. They run exclusive promotional campaigns targeted at the Asian communities in Boston and NY.
The study, published in the latest American Psychiatric Association’s journal discloses that more than 60 percent of participants wagered more than $100 on a typical gambling day, with 42 percent betting more than $500 in the two months.
The participant’s median annual salary was around $25,000 which is a large proportion of their earnings.
Theanvy Kuoch, one the researchers comments that these gamblers are using gambling and Casinos as ‘escapist means’ to escape from bitter memories and troubled past with an easy means to get rich-quick in a recreational way rather than taking the hard road again.@@
